C-Cube Microsystems Inc, San Jose claims that its Compression Master/PC is the first image compression board for AT-alikes based on the proposed international Joint Photographic Experts Group standard for image compression, for use in applications involving colour photographs or motion video, desktop publishing and video editing: the board incorporates C-Cube’s CL550 processor and is intended to enable OEM customers and software developers to evaluate the CL550 and integrate compression and decompression into their products; using a symmetrical algorithm, the CL550 can compress or decompress still images or motion video by a factor of 20 without visible degradation in quality, the company says – compression ratios vary from 10:1 to 100:1 and can be set by the user; the thing runs at up to 10MHz and the development boards cost $3,000.
