jeff_rigby
Banned
Edit: Continuation of this thread from 7/2013 now partially proved as about 80% accurate.
Hardware being used to support Media Hub & OpenVX features in both the XB1 and PS4
Found by onQ123 but he didn't realize what he found. I didn't either till I investigated Kavari supporting h.265 with a Xtensa processor (In Wiki pages). Panajev2001a apparently got it and also that it's likely in the ARM secondary chip as Southbridge " Those slides are very interesting and kind of confirm that the secondary ARM processor and the DPU we see mentioned are quite the same thing basically.".
Xtensa audio DPU HiFi DSPs are in the PS4 and XB1 to support Game audio, speech recognition, voice synthesis, audio codecs, blu-ray and more. This has been acknowledged.
AMD's Kaveri uses a Xtensa IVP DPU for the UVD 4 software decoder codec (supports h.265) and a Xtensa HiFi DSP DPU for TrueAudio.
Xtensa IVP flyer with use cases and block diagrams.
In Kaveri and the XB1 they are on an AXI ARM buss inside the APU and in the PS4 they are in the Southbridge on a AXI ARM bus (Not acknowledged or proven yet).
What features do they offer? A Software codec engine as IVP DPU can support multiple video codecs and as HiFi multiple audio codecs. Microsoft has released the codecs and file types the XB1 DLNA will support and they encompass just about every major and near future standard including Apples MOV. A media hub should support everything and trans-code to a common standard coming with DLNA 2.0 = DLNA CVP2 and HTML5 <video>. Not mentioned is h.265 which the XB1 and PS4 will support for both 4K Blu-ray and to support IPTV streaming. All these and h.265 can be supported with software using a Xtensa IVP(s) (XB1 apparently has two IVPs).
Xtensa IVP and Hifi can provide all the LOW POWER features needed by a STB and Blu-ray player including acting as a second smaller GPU. They can do AR and VR as well as gesture and voice recognition.
The following is from a Sony presentation and the block to the right of the CPU/GPU would be in the PS4 southbridge. Notice the functional blocks in the above slide match the Sony slide.
AMD bought a Licence to use Xtensa DPUs in 2004 and Sony in 2007 for their blu-ray players.
From Tensilica Xtensa literature:
"Tensilica DPUs can provide the 2D and 3D graphics support required to drive the TV menu system and play games." = second smaller GPU that both Microsoft and Sony had patents for and was mentioned as needed in the leaked Xbox 720 powerpoint and by Sony in letters to Energy Star and EU on Game Console power modes.
Clearly DPUs can also support software video codecs, Playready and WMDRM10 (DTCP-IP) as well as HDCP 2.X.
Sony considers the PS4 as Key to owning the living room and one of it's features is as a Media HUB for the ATSC 2.0 media hub model and DLNA CVP2 ecosystem. It will:
Remote play Blu-ray through the home network
Play Blu ray and 4K or transcoded 4K to a HDMI connected TV
Accept a h.265 stream over the internet and trans-code to h.264 to serve media to other platforms in the home.
Act as a STB for media streamed from a Cable TV DVR DLNA Server or DLNA served from a OTA DLNA tuner (ATSC 2.0)
Act as a DVR for media streamed from a Cable TV DVR or a OTA Tuner and serve to other platforms in the home
Skype STB or something similar with a common standard accepted by the industry.
Must do the above with less than 21 watts and in doing so must also support:
1) Network standby power mode Key phrase detection to turn on the PS4.
2) All voice recognition and gesture recognition
3) audio codecs
4) Audio chat
5) Voice synthesis
6) Decode Multiple Video codecs like h.265, h.264, MOV and more which requires a software Codec engine (Xtensa IVP)
7) Act as a second smaller low power GPU
A ARM southbridge containing DPUs can do the above and in addition can support AR and VR as well as Move and gesture control in game without impacting game GPU or memory.
This is a 2010 Sony white paper that was presented to the ATSC committee on what would become Sony Media fusion.** Features in it should become part of Playstation Vue.to 1080P and 4K TVs using the HEVC codec. The PS4 is designed to support this.
Hardware being used to support Media Hub & OpenVX features in both the XB1 and PS4
Found by onQ123 but he didn't realize what he found. I didn't either till I investigated Kavari supporting h.265 with a Xtensa processor (In Wiki pages). Panajev2001a apparently got it and also that it's likely in the ARM secondary chip as Southbridge " Those slides are very interesting and kind of confirm that the secondary ARM processor and the DPU we see mentioned are quite the same thing basically.".
The above quote seems to imply that Xtensa IVP DPUs are in the XB1 and PS4 for Video.http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/df-hardware-orbis-unmasked-what-to-expect-from-next-gen-console said:PS4 Additional hardware: GPU-like Compute module, some resources reserved by the OS
"However, there's a fair amount of "secret sauce" in Orbis and we can disclose details on one of the more interesting additions. Paired up with the eight AMD cores, we find a bespoke GPU-like "Compute" module, designed to ease the burden on certain operations. We're assured that this is bespoke hardware that is not a part of the main graphics pipeline but we remain rather mystified by its standalone inclusion, bearing in mind Compute functions could be run off the main graphics cores and that devs could have the option to utilise that power for additional graphical grunt, if they so chose." For the PS4 we know Tensilica DSPs are in the PS4 likely in the ARM Southbridge and maybe Xtensa IVPs.
Durango additional graphics hardware - "rumours have circulated for quite some time that it is some way behind Orbis, but equally there has been the suggestion that the GPU itself is supplemented by additional task-specific hardware. We could not confirm this, but an ex-Microsoft staffer with a prior relationship with the Xbox team says that two of these modules are graphics-related."
Xtensa audio DPU HiFi DSPs are in the PS4 and XB1 to support Game audio, speech recognition, voice synthesis, audio codecs, blu-ray and more. This has been acknowledged.
AMD's Kaveri uses a Xtensa IVP DPU for the UVD 4 software decoder codec (supports h.265) and a Xtensa HiFi DSP DPU for TrueAudio.
Xtensa IVP flyer with use cases and block diagrams.
In Kaveri and the XB1 they are on an AXI ARM buss inside the APU and in the PS4 they are in the Southbridge on a AXI ARM bus (Not acknowledged or proven yet).
What features do they offer? A Software codec engine as IVP DPU can support multiple video codecs and as HiFi multiple audio codecs. Microsoft has released the codecs and file types the XB1 DLNA will support and they encompass just about every major and near future standard including Apples MOV. A media hub should support everything and trans-code to a common standard coming with DLNA 2.0 = DLNA CVP2 and HTML5 <video>. Not mentioned is h.265 which the XB1 and PS4 will support for both 4K Blu-ray and to support IPTV streaming. All these and h.265 can be supported with software using a Xtensa IVP(s) (XB1 apparently has two IVPs).
Xtensa IVP and Hifi can provide all the LOW POWER features needed by a STB and Blu-ray player including acting as a second smaller GPU. They can do AR and VR as well as gesture and voice recognition.
The following is from a Sony presentation and the block to the right of the CPU/GPU would be in the PS4 southbridge. Notice the functional blocks in the above slide match the Sony slide.
AMD bought a Licence to use Xtensa DPUs in 2004 and Sony in 2007 for their blu-ray players.
From Tensilica Xtensa literature:
"Tensilica DPUs can provide the 2D and 3D graphics support required to drive the TV menu system and play games." = second smaller GPU that both Microsoft and Sony had patents for and was mentioned as needed in the leaked Xbox 720 powerpoint and by Sony in letters to Energy Star and EU on Game Console power modes.
Clearly DPUs can also support software video codecs, Playready and WMDRM10 (DTCP-IP) as well as HDCP 2.X.
Blu-ray Disc Players and Set-Top Boxes
Blu-ray Disc™ players and recorders require extensive digital signal processing—and Cadence® Tensilica® dataplane processors are right in there, doing the heavy DSP processing. Just look at the things that need to be engineered in a Blu-ray Disc player:
Audio Processing
Video/Graphics Processing
Security/DRM
Wireless
Applications Processing
Sony considers the PS4 as Key to owning the living room and one of it's features is as a Media HUB for the ATSC 2.0 media hub model and DLNA CVP2 ecosystem. It will:
Remote play Blu-ray through the home network
Play Blu ray and 4K or transcoded 4K to a HDMI connected TV
Accept a h.265 stream over the internet and trans-code to h.264 to serve media to other platforms in the home.
Act as a STB for media streamed from a Cable TV DVR DLNA Server or DLNA served from a OTA DLNA tuner (ATSC 2.0)
Act as a DVR for media streamed from a Cable TV DVR or a OTA Tuner and serve to other platforms in the home
Skype STB or something similar with a common standard accepted by the industry.
Must do the above with less than 21 watts and in doing so must also support:
1) Network standby power mode Key phrase detection to turn on the PS4.
2) All voice recognition and gesture recognition
3) audio codecs
4) Audio chat
5) Voice synthesis
6) Decode Multiple Video codecs like h.265, h.264, MOV and more which requires a software Codec engine (Xtensa IVP)
7) Act as a second smaller low power GPU
A ARM southbridge containing DPUs can do the above and in addition can support AR and VR as well as Move and gesture control in game without impacting game GPU or memory.
This is a 2010 Sony white paper that was presented to the ATSC committee on what would become Sony Media fusion.** Features in it should become part of Playstation Vue.to 1080P and 4K TVs using the HEVC codec. The PS4 is designed to support this.