LONDON — PC-TV chip company Mirics Semiconductor Ltd. (Fleet, England) has said it has developed a mobile TV receiver to run on Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs).
The Mirics FlexiTV software-based receiver can now be implemented on entry-level PCs that have CUDA-enabled Nvidia GPUs. CUDA is a parallel-programming initiative that uses the parallelism of GPUs to run software other than graphics rendering.
FlexiTV offers a software-reconfigurable platform to receive free-to-air terrestrial TV regardless of regional variations. The Mirics approach off-loads certain algorithms to the Nvidia graphics chip.
"Mirics has significantly expanded the range of PC platforms that can support global TV reception by combining FlexiTV with the powerful Nvidia CUDA architecture," said Simon Atkinson, Mirics CEO, in a statement.
Michael Steele, general manager of visual consumer solutions at Nvidia, said: Nvidia CUDA-enabled GPUs are ideal for real-time signal processing. The combination of the Nvidia CUDA architecture and FlexiTV means low-priced netbooks, notebooks and desktop PCs can deliver excellent standard and high definition PC TV viewing experiences."
The CUDA-optimized FlexiTV product is being sampled to some customers, Miric's said.
Mirics has secured funding from an investor team comprising Acacia Capital Partners, Intel Capital and Pond Venture Partners. Mirics secured $7 million of financing in January 2009, bringing total investor financial support to $22 million.
