Portable personal computer users will get the opportunity to run more powerful video on their machines thanks to a new specification approved by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association, PCMCIA. The Association has approved the ZV Zoomed Video port, a new connection between a PC Card and host system that enables the card to write video directly to the VGA controller. The data is transferred with no buffering requirements because it is transferred over the Zoomed Video bus and not the system bus. According to Fremont, California-based Cirrus Logic Inc, Zoomed Video benefits portable personal computer users by lowering the cost of hardware-decoded MPEG, live video capture or authoring, and even phone or ISDN videoconferencing. In addition to expanding the user’s options, designers can reduce the cost of their notebook by offering multimedia options as an after-market upgrade. A number of manufacturers have announced support for the port, including Cirrus, which presented the proposal to the PC card association last year – so Zoomed Video-compliant products should start appearing this year.
