Japan police: Total number of dead or missing after quake and tsunami has topped 21,000 - Kyodo http://conta.cc/f34gSt

• Trump Doubts Obama Born in USA...
• AP: Minuscule fallout reaches USA...
• Inside classified Hill briefing, administration spells out war plan...
• Jail smuggler hid cellphone, MP3 player, headphones, pot, tobacco, cash in his buttocks...
• Mother-son duo arrested for armed robbery...
• NY Fed confirms intervention in currency markets...
• 'Chernobyl solution' may be last resort...
• LIBYA HALTS ALL MILITARY OPERATIONS
• Libyan announces cease-fire after UN vote...
• Millions Of Feral Hogs Plaguing Texas Farms, Ranches...
• Obama keeps joking about birthers...
• Alert level at Indonesia volcano raised to highest...
• ...protests near borders
• Disaster Fatigue: Americans Give Less to Japan...
• PAPER: OBAMA: THE WEAKEST PRESIDENT IN HISTORY?
• Amazon: Ka-Bar Black Kukri Machete
• Oil back above $103...
• Saudi King Orders Billions of Dollars in Handouts...
• 'Low Levels' of Radioactive Material Detected in Pacific...
• Newspaper Guild adds firepower to HUFFINGTON POST strike...
• Japan Nuclear Disaster Caps Decades of Faked Reports...
• Outrage Over High School 'Smut List'...
• Subway Brawl Erupts Over Spaghetti Eating Passenger...
• Strikes Could Come Within Hours...
• 'ALL NECESSARY MEASURES'...

• REPORT: U.S. to evacuate Americans...
• DOUBLESPEAK: 'The possibility of re-criticality is not zero'...
• Detectors installed at LAX...
• Brought over by airline passengers...
• DAY 31: White House Asks U.N. to Approve Strikes on Libya...
• Radiation Found At DFW, O'Hare Airports...
• Obama maintains silence: 'I'm going to be making a statement later about Japan, so I'm not going to answer questions now...'
• DAILY: Obama's indecision on Libya has pushed Clinton over the edge...
• Japan's increasingly frantic efforts at nuke plant...
  
  'Like suicide fighters in a war'...
• Amazon: Streamlight 66118 Stylus Pro Black LED Pen Flashlight with Holster
• NYT to start charging for website on March 28...
• U.S. Seeks Range of Strikes on Libya at U.N....
• Drunk man claims Dr. Phil warning of 'alien invasion' as reason for speeding...
• Clinton pushes for jobs -- in Tunisia...
• REBELS ON THE RUN: GADHAFI GOES FOR KILL...
• 'NOT NORMAL, NOT DANGEROUS'
• Gang Of Feral Cats 'The Size Of Dogs' Terrorize Neighborhood...
• Sheriff Joe says CRAIGSLIST facilitates bestiality...
• QUAYLE: 'I'm glad Obama is out there playing golf'...
• ROYAL CARIBBEAN rolls out 'all-you-can-drink' packages...
• North Dakota economy booms, population soars...
• 84% of Illegals Caught in 2010 Never Prosecuted...
• Radiation Spurs Fears Around Japanese Food...
• DESPAIR TURNING TO ANGER...
• Man, 92, Trapped In Window Dies...

• British nationals advised to leave Tokyo...
• Teens Arrested After Releasing Live Chicken Into High School...
• Debt Jumps $72B Same Day House Votes to Cut Spending $6B...
• JAPAN'S DESPAIR TURNING TO ANGER...
• Life Among the Ruins...
• Angle announces House bid!
• MURDOCH ON MOVE: THE DAILY set for summer EU launch...
• Wall St turns negative for year...
• White House Carney To Tapper: Ask YOUR OWN Reporters On Situation...
• WASHPOST ADMITS PLAGIARISM BY PULITZER WINNER...
• PELOSI PRACTICES CPR IN LIGHT OF GIFFORDS TRAGEDY...
• U.S. Officials Alarmed By Japanese Handling of Crisis...
• Radiation Found on NBCNEWS Crew, Lester Holt...
• US Military Bans Websites During 'Time of Extreme Demand'...
• 'Powerless Europe trapped in Gaddafi's web'...
• Sarkozy pleads to UN for no-fly zone...
• Yen Matches Record High Against Dollar...
• US NUKE AGENCY: NOTHING TO STOP MELTDOWN...
• GADHAFI SON: 'Everything will be over in 48 hours'...
• GEITHNER to Congress: More Debt Please...
• CLINTON acknowledges 'urgency' but remains undecided on no-fly zone...
• GADHAFI GOES FOR THE KILL
• U.S. Directly Contradicts Japanese Officials...
• President to headline $30,800-a-head DNC bash in Harlem...
• UPDATE: OBAMA WON'T GET SUNSHINE AWARD TODAY...

• Two Workers Missing, Roof Cracked After Latest Explosion...
• US Surgeon General Encourages West Coast Residents to Buy Iodide Tablets...
• CLAIM: NUKE PLANT CRISIS HAS 'WORSENED CONSIDERABLY'...
• Reactor Design Caused GE Scientist To Quit In Protest...
• 'THERE IS NOTHING LEFT'
• SMART PHONE LANDS DUMB GUY IN JAIL...
• US Navy Records Elevated Levels 200 Miles Away...
• Recycles Praise Cliche...
• REPORT: Aristide to Return to Haiti this Week...
• RETREAT! Radio France Withdraws Correspondents...
• New Worries about Hydrogen Build-up...
• BBC: Rain across region to bring radiation to ground...
• Gaddafi forces seize key town; G8 stalls on no-fly zone...
• Feds slow to pursue failed banks; have sued only 5 of 347 failed banks...
• Refugees battle for survival in freezing northeast...
• Nuke Agency: Japan radiation leaking 'directly' into air...
• Prosecutors: Berlusconi had sex with teen 13 times...
• Man tries to pay bill with 650,000 pennies...
• Thousands missing, millions short of power and water – and fear everywhere...
• NOW, NUCLEAR SNOW
• Sudden run on potassium iodide pills in U.S....
• Powerful 6.4 quake hits southwest of Tokyo...
• TOKYO WIND: Radiation plume could reach capital by nightfall...
• UK hospital treats 3-year-old alcoholic...
• Europe's energy commissioner: 'Apocalypse'...

Microsoft killed off the Zune brand, one of the great underrated tech products of recent years. But its DNA lives on: http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2010-10/windows-phone-7-review-once-more-feeling

• Lose last stronghold west of Tripoli...
• Obama team seeks new ways to fire up base...
• Denver City Council endorses 6.6% pay raise for elected officials...
• TV producer suspended for 'all-white' cast remarks...
• Thousands of Palestinians rally...
• Israeli navy intercepts Egypt-bound ship with arms...
• King declares 3-month state of emergency...
• Problems Grow as Egypt's Exchange Stays Closed...
• Says European Friends Betrayed Him...
• Delaware train station renamed -- for Joe Biden!
• Winds Blowing Towards Tokyo...
• DR. DOOM: If Market Keeps Falling, Fed Will Keep Printing...
• Student-Athletes May Sue College Over Sports Cuts...
• AMERICAN DECLINE EMERGES AS TOP ISSUE IN 2012 RACE: REPLACING SOCIAL ISSUES...
• AL FRANKEN WARNS: 'THEY'RE COMING AFTER THE INTERNET'...
• Bill Would Ban Human Cloning In Minnesota...
• St. Louis Votes To Make Cold Medication Prescription-Only...
• Soy sauce, dog food may have caused frat pledge's seizure...
• ABCNEWSWASHPOST POLL: Confidence in U.S. Govt Drops to 35-Year Low...
• LAPD Officer Used Dept-Issued GPS To Keep Tabs On G-friend...
• Confirmed Dead Tops 6,000...
• TOKYO WIND: Radiation From Latest Blast Could Reach Capital by Nightfall...
• Nikkei Plummets as Scientists Discuss Radiation Threat...
• MARKET MELTDOWN
• PM Kan asks public to act calmly...

Google releases Anthill to bake VP8 into hardware

by Stephen Shankland

• Font size
• Print
• E-mail
• Share
• 1 comment

Share 7

Using Anthill, also called H1, a chip can encode or decode VP8 video vastly more efficiently than software can.

(Credit: Google)

Addressing a major weakness its plan to build its WebM video technology into the Web, Google yesterday released a version of its VP8 video encoder and decoder designed to be baked into hardware.

The hardware implementation of VP8 is called H1 and now Anthill, said Aki Kuusela, engineering manager of the WebM Project, in a blog post. It comes in the form of RTL, or Register Transfer Language, a very low-level description close to how processors actually perform their instructions, and it's available royalty free.

"The H1 hardware encoder can produce good quality with very low power consumption using almost no clock cycles from the CPU," Kuusela said. "The H1 encoder offloads the entire VP8 video encoding process from the host CPU to a separate accelerator block on the [processor]. It significantly reduces power consumption and enables encoding of 1080p resolution video at full 30 frames per second, or 720p at 60 FPS. Without a hardware accelerator like the H1, modern multi-core mobile devices can only encode video at around VGA 25 FPS, and are not able to do much else while doing that."

VP8 competes chiefly with a codec called H.264, also known as AVC and or MPEG-4 Part 10. It's widely supported in everything from videocameras to personal computer operating systems, but it's encumbered by patent licensing requirements. With VP8 and WebM, Google hopes to lower the barriers for digital video, especially on the Web.

Royalty-free VP8 is be cheaper to use than H.264, but VP8 may not offer a royalty-free ride forever, though. That's because MPEG LA, the group that licenses the pool of H.264 patents, is seeking patents that patent owners believe VP8 requires. That's a necessary step in preparing for a VP8 patent pool, an idea Google doesn't like one bit.

One big advantage H.264 has is hardware support that makes encoding and decoding faster and less of a drain on mobile devices' precious battery power. Thus, Google is trying to encourage hardware support, and it's made some successes with Texas Instruments and Rockchip.

As is common for hardware codecs, Anthill doesn't match the quality of Bali, the latest software version of the open-source VP8 codec, Kuusela said.

"In the next release, we are planning to narrow the quality gap between the libvpx 'Best' mode and the hardware implementation, while cutting down the required power even further. The next release is planned to be out in early Q2," he said, perhaps a sign that Google hopes to keep the hardware codecs on the same rapid quarterly release track as the software codec.

Google faces many challenges in spreading VP8 far and wide, but it's won over the makers of the Firefox and Opera browsers. And today, Opera announced it's begun supporting a related technology for still image compression called WebP.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20043249-264.html#ixzz1GftPyU4r

Two Dogs Defy the Wave... http://plu.gd/fSw

• TOKYO WIND: Radiation From Latest Blast Could Reach Capital by Nightfall...
• Nikkei Plummets as Scientists Discuss Radiation Threat...
• MARKET MELTDOWN
• PM Kan asks public to act calmly...
• Spewing radiation...
• FLASH: Japan's Nikkei stock index plunges 13% on nuclear fears...
• Firefighters battle blaze at reactor...
• WRAP...
• Japan prepares for the worst...
• Gaddafi seeking new arms to crush uprising...
• Third explosion raises spectre of nuclear nightmare...
• Rods fully exposed for 2 1/2 hours...
• Two Dogs Defy the Wave...
• Confusion from deadly quake spreading...
• RACE TO SAVE THE REACTORS...
• Higher radiation recorded north of Tokyo...
• WRAP...
• Part of troubled reactor container appears damaged...
• Senior journalist implicated in newspaper hacking scandal...
• REPORT: 'Partial defect' discovered in reactor container...
• MELTDOWN ALERT AT ANOTHER REACTOR
• Pentagon not warned...
• REACTOR 'STILL UNSTABLE'...
• Boy, 14, arrested for 'cyber-bullying' two 12-year-olds...
• Russian Bomb Squad Called in to Defuse Sex Toy...

• THE NEW CIVILITY: Time mag calls Wisc governor 'Dead Man Walker'...
• MELTDOWN: NUKE RODS MELTING IN 3 REACTORS
• AP: AFTER PROMISES, OBAMA ADMIN OFFERS LITTLE TRANSPARANCY...
  
  REJECTS MORE THAN 1/3 OF FOIA REQUESTS...
• KYODO: Power rationing to last through April...
• Tide of bodies wash up on Japanese coast...
  
  Crematoriums overwhelmed; body bags run out...
• Hundreds isolated for fear of contamination...
• Wall Street dives on Japan fears...
• German airline scans Japan flights for radioactivity...
• Internet top choice to get news in America; overtakes newspapers for first time...
• Japan battles nuclear meltdown after explosion at second reactor...
• Japan distributes 230,000 units of iodine at evacuation centers...
• Bank of Japan pumps in 15 trillion yen...
• UPDATE: Nikkei Stock Market drops more than 6%...
• Fallout fears spark run on iodine tablets -- in Finland...
• UPDATE: More than 500,000 evacuated...
• 160 EXPOSED TO RADIATION IN MELTDOWN OF REACTOR NO. 1...
• Hackers group releases BANK OF AMERICA e-mails...
• OBAMA IN FRESH POLL SLIDE...
• Winds at Plants Should Send Radiation out to Sea...
• Past is present...
• DER SPIEGEL: Nuclear Disaster 'Will Have Political Impact as Great as 9/11'...
• 400,000 homeless bed down without electricity...
• Biggest Crisis Since WWII...
• Japan battles nuclear meltdown...
• Why is there no looting?

Headlines

24,000 stranded waiting for help...

Hackers group to release BANK OF AMERICA e-mails Monday...

Nikkei Stock Market opens down 5%...

Michigan bill would impose 'financial martial law'...

Survivors face dwindling supplies...

'We're told not to breathe the air -- it's scary'...

Israel to expand settlements after family killing...

Race to prevent humanitarian disaster...

Bank of Japan Readies 'Massive' Liquidity...

U.S. West Coast in Path of Fallout...

GE-designed reactors in Fukushima have 23 sisters in USA...

British sniper kills two Taliban -- with single bullet...

400,000 homeless bed down without electricity...

'Worst crisis' since second world war...

Japan battles nuclear meltdown...

Boy, 4, falls off mall escalator, dies...

REPORT: Gadhafi drives rebels from one of last strongholds...

Pilots lock down cockpit over praying passengers...

SOMALI PIRATES CUT RANSOMS TO CLEAR HIJACKED SHIPS...

US WARSHIPS OFF JAPAN COAST...

200,000 Evacuated...

Just minutes apart...

BREAKING: HELICOPTER CRASHES IN L.A., BURSTS INTO FLAMES....

BREAKING: HELICOPTER CRASHES INTO RAYTHEON BUILDING IN L.A....

Nuclear Renaissance Threatened as Japan's Reactor Struggles...