Apple planning dedicated video chips

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 12 Aug 2008 at 12:43

Apple is planning to equip its computers with dedicated video encoding/decoding chips, suggest reports.

An earlier conference call from the company claimed that a "future product transition" would be occurring this year, which would temporarily dent profit margins, although no specific details were given.

"I happen to know that the product transition referred to in Apple's recent conference call was referring to QuickTime encoding/decoding chips built into their products," claims an anonymous tipster speaking to Silicon Valley Insider, which the site admits is "pure speculation" at this point.

However, this is far from the first time that a similar rumour has been voiced. In March 2007 the group-pseudonym Robert X. Cringely wrote "I have heard that Apple plans to add hardware video decoding to ALL of its new computers beginning fairly soon, certainly this year."

If real, the chips could handle the processing of video, taking the strain off of the processor and graphics chip of Apple's desktop and notebook machines.

Apple has in the past offered similar chips designed to handle specific codecs, but the H.264 standard used in QuickTime files is the same as that used in Blu-ray, so could also play a role in HD playback and encoding for lower-end machines. High-end computers already often come equipped with graphics cards that offer H.264 processing.