Hercules Computer Technology Inc claims its new Dynamite 128/Video 128-bit accelerator board, which uses the 128-bit ET6000 graphics controller from Tseng Labs Inc can achieve up to 1Gb per second bandwidth. The Dynamite 128/Video uses the synchronous Multi-bank DRAM – MDRAM – technology from MoSys Inc. Multi-bank DRAM memory chips are organised in separated 32Kb banks connected with an internal bus. By internally overlapping fast memory cycles of different banks, the chips can achieve up to 8nS access time with 500Mb per second data throughput per channel. In addition to a 4Mb offering, the Berkeley, California company offers the Dynamite 128/Video in a 2.25Mb configuration that puts up 1,024 by 768 pixels in 16.7m colours. Hercules also announced an MPEG decompression daughterboard enabling 30 frames per second playback of MPEG-1 files and a television tuner-video capture add-on board. The Dynamite 128/Video’s feature set and graphical interface acceleration is complemented by digital video acceleration capabilities, including colour space conversion, horizontal and vertical scaling and filtering algorithms, colour key capabilities and support for up to four simultaneous accelerated video streams. Power Drive drivers for Windows95 have accelerated support for each resolution and colour depth offered by the hardware, as well as integrated refresh rate selection and complete DirectDraw and DirectVideo support. The Dynamite 128/Video is due this quarter. The 2.25Mb Multi-bank DRAM model will be $350, the 4Mb MDRAM, $450. Hercules also has a Terminator 64/3D multimedia accelerator. It features the S3 Inc ViRGE integrated three-dimensional video accelerator, 2Mb Extended Data Out DRAM and hardware-based MPEG decompression on board. Hardware MPEG support is achieved through a daughterboard connected to the accelerator via the board’s digital multimedia port. The Hercules Terminator 64/3D is expected to be out in the first quarter at $300 or $400 with hardware MPEG. The optional MPEG daughterboard model will be $140.
