Adobe Flash Lite是Adobe Flash Player的輕量級版本,支持移動電話和其它便攜式設備的用戶觀看多媒體內容和其它使用Adobe的Flash工具開發的各種應用。在這之前,Flash只能在個人電腦上播放。

Flash 使開發豐富的媒體內容和應用變得非常簡單,例如利用階數,alpha混合,反鋸齒或者矢量字符渲染技術的圖形用戶界面的設計。但Flash的播放經常需要很多處理步驟,包括浮點單元運算。

Adobe公司設計的Adobe Flash Lite增加了專門為移動電話設計的指令集,在保證數據處理的同時能夠保持數據量在最小限度。盡管如此,播放Adobe Flash Lite的文件仍然要求高速、高功耗的處理器。

NEC系統技術公司的LSI方案組的經理Shinji Aihara說:“通過使用我們的新IP核,在便攜式設備上處理Adobe Flash Lite文件時,可以比使用普通處理器快幾倍。”NEC開發的IP核可以在手機,汽車導航,數字電視接收機和DVD播放器中使用。

在IP核功能演示中,NEC公司使用了Xilink的FPGA—Virtex-4LX XC4VLX160。“我們的評估板采用了一個帶ARM總線的FPGA。但我們可以根據客戶的需求定制任意不同的總線。”

NEC將在減少了IC所需的門電路和進一步調整Abode Flash Lite輸出的視頻質量之后,于今年的八月份開始供應這個IP核。

翻頁查看英文原文:

NEC develops Adobe Flash Lite IP

At Embedded Systems Expo here, NEC System Technology showed an evaluation board featuring what the company claims as the world's first intellectual property (IP) designed to play back content encoded in Adobe Flash Lite.

Adobe Flash Lite, a lightweight version of Adobe Flash Player, enables users of mobile phones and other portable devices to view multimedia content and applications developed using Adobe's Flash tools. Previously, Flash playback had been possible only on personal computers.

Flash makes it easy to develop rich media content and applications, such as a graphical user interface that takes advantage of gradation, alpha blending, anti-aliasing or vector-fonts rendering. But Flash playback often requires a number of processing steps, including floating point unit calculations.

Adobe developed Adobe Flash Lite by adding instruction sets specifically designed for mobile phones, while keeping the data it needs to handle to a minimum. However, playing back Adobe Flash Lite would still require a high-speed, high-power-consumption processor.

Shinji Aihara, manager of the LSI solutions group at NEC System Technology, said: "By using our new IP, one can design a portable device capable of processing Adobe Flash Lite several times faster, when compared with using a processor." NEC developed the IP for cell phones, car navigation systems, digital TV receivers and DVD players.

In its IP demonstration, NEC used a Xilinx FPGA--Virtex-4LX XC4VLX160. "In our evaluation board, we used an FPGA with an ARM bus. But we can customize it to [whatever] bus is preferred by our customers."

After reducing the number of gates required for an IC and further tuning the video quality output by Adobe Flash Lite, NEC will start offering its IP in August this year.