Leadtek readies Cell-based video processing card
Will not turn your PC into a PS3
3rd October 2008 12:16 GMT
Graphics card maker Leadtek has demo'd an add-in card equipped with Toshiba's QuadCore HD graphics chip, the Cell-derived part also known as the SpursEngine SE1000.
It's been showing the single-slot PCI Express card, called the WinFast PxVC1100, at the CEATEC show in Japan. Leadtek's talking about the product as a video-processing tool, and focused its attention on the GPU's ability to encode and decode MPEG 2, along with MPEG 4 codecs H.264 and AVC.

Leadtek's PxVC1100: solution seeks problem for mutual benefit
Most regular GPUs from AMD and Nvidia do that too, even the low-end ones, so it's hard to see why an enthusiast or a PC builder would install one of these, especially since they'll need a normal GPU for the 2D and 3D work anyway.
Even Toshiba's own QuadCore-equipped laptops use Nvidia graphics, suggesting the QuadCore HD chip is something of a solution seeking a problem.
The card has 128MB of Rambus XDR memory on board, though Leadtek didn't say at what frequency the QuadCore HD is set to run at.


Intel Core i7 I7-920 Quad Core Processor (2.66GHz, 4x256kB, 4.8GT/s QPI, LGA 1336 Socket B)
Intel Core i5 750 Qaud Core Processor (2.66GHz, 8MB L3 Cache, 2.5 GT/s Bus, Socket H LGA1156)
Asus P7P55D Motherboard (Intel Socket H LGA1156, P55 Express, ATX, 16GB DDR3)
Asus M4A785TD-V EVO Motherboard (AMD Socket AM3, 785G, ATX, 16GB DDR3, 5200 MT/s Bus)
Micro Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Quad Core Processor (3.2GHz, 6MB L3 Cache, 4x512kB L2 Cache, 2000 MHz Bus, Socket AM3)