Rebirth of the Tech Madman

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With the gradual maturity of analog TV technology since the 1950s, people's pursuit of digital video and nonlinear editing has never stopped. Please search () to see the most complete! the fastest updated

While some powerful manufacturers have successively launched their own initial digital video solutions, the field of non-linear editing has also seen a symbolic progress.

One of the notable achievements comes from George Lucas's Lucasfilm Ltd., which has a system called the Editing Robot, which is similar in size to a 12-inch vinyl record and has a surface similar to an audio CD. Laserdisc, and databases. Combined with other means, a certain degree of non-linear editing function has been realized.

Founded in 1922, the National League of Broadcasters held the nab annual meeting in April this year, and at the same time hosted the world's largest or-montage picture processor, and made its debut on the stage at the same time, which aroused a lot of attention.

In fact, these solutions are difficult to commercialize into mature products, because they are all non-universal solutions made by indigenous steelmaking.

In Tang Huan's view, among the pioneers in the field of digital video and nonlinear editing, although traditional manufacturers have technical strength, they lack a bit of creative spirituality; With creative spirituality, research and development can be carried out spontaneously, but they do not have sufficient technical strength.

However, having said that, even if they have both technical strength and creative spirituality, they may not be able to catch up with Tang Huan, who also has industry vision and resource integration advantages.

Whether it is digital video or non-linear editing, it needs to combine various achievements before it can enter the practical stage. In the original time and space, it developed passively and naturally; but now it is urged ahead of time by Tang Huan's rapid accumulation of resources over the past few years.

Take the d-vhs camera responsible for the video acquisition link. Its lens and imager parts are not much different from other types of cameras, but technical achievements such as analog-to-digital converters, digital signal processors, instant lossless compression, video tape formats, etc. have been condensed on the recorder part.

The bit rate is achieved due to the uncompressed video information. That is 21.625mb/s. Any one of these elements was necessary to store the data on the 94-minute d-vhs tape and prepare it for subsequent post-processing.

The -1 system, which provides digital video and nonlinear editing functions at the same time, is even more integrated. It is equivalent to an extremely complicated Fangyuan server, and Tang Huan endowed it with many high-end microcomputer system technologies.

For example, the system bus adopts the 32-bit version of isa-32, which is the Internet standard architecture.

The system bus of the Fangyuan computer architecture officially began with the second-generation Fangyuan personal computer, and even collided in name with the system bus of the IBM- developed at the same time.

As part of the business war, the two companies also spat at each other on patents. In the end, because the Internet Standard Architecture came out earlier, Big Blue resentfully abandoned the name Industry Standard Architecture. Directly called the xt bus. The current main model, ibm-, is also called the at bus.

In addition to the same abbreviation of the bus, interconnection standard architecture and industry standard architecture also have some similarities in technical specifications. For example, the width of the initial version is eight bits, and the frequency is also the same as the operating frequency of the CPU.

But the difference between the two is quite obvious. The Internet standard architecture supports a certain degree of plug and play, while the industry standard architecture does not have this feature.

In addition, since the cpu used by ibm- is a 4.77mhz intel8088, the frequency of the industry standard structure is also 4.77mhz, and the bus bandwidth is 4.77mhz*8 bits/8=4.77mb/s.

The cpu used by the second-generation Fangyuan personal computer is an 8mhz intel8088. And 12.5mhz, etc., so the bus bandwidth is at least 8mhz*8 bits/8=8mb/s

This gap cannot be ignored, because the slots where expansion cards such as modems, network cards, sound cards, and graphics cards are connected are connected to the system bus at the other end. Furthermore, the operation of network applications, games and other software has obvious performance improvement.

In the era of the third-generation Fangyuan personal computer, the interconnection standard architecture and ibm's xt bus and at bus have gradually drifted away, because of the further improvement of the plug and play function and the introduction of the 16-bit version of isa -16.

This also means that, in the case of constant bus frequency. Data throughput has doubled, which means computer performance has doubled.

Due to cost constraints, the application of isa-16 in the Fangyuan personal computer product line is limited, and the areas where it can show its talents are Fangyuan workstations and Fangyuan servers.

When the full 32-bit fourth-generation Fangyuan personal computer is coming, as a part of technical preparation, the isa bus has also evolved to a 32-bit version - isa-32, and is first deployed to the Fangyuan server on the high-end product line and Fangyuan workstations.

There are many changes in isa-32. For example, in addition to the data width being 32 bits, so that the bus throughput is at least double that of isa-16, its operating frequency is no longer synchronized with the faster cpu.

In other words, the mechanism of frequency multiplication was introduced.

The bus between the cpu and the Northbridge equipped with a memory controller is called the front-side bus or fsb.

From now on, the operating frequencies of isa-32 and cpu are separated by fsb, the speed of cpu is determined by fsb and multiplier, while isa-32 is linked with fsb.

This is the case in the -1 system, which is equipped with an architecture processor with a running frequency of 40mhz and a multiplier of 2. Both the fsb and isa-32 buses are 20mhz, so the bus bandwidth has reached 20mhz*32bit/8=80mb/s, laying a solid foundation for digital video processing.

Processor, isa-32 bus, large-capacity memory, digital signal processor specially responsible for hardware encoding and decoding, and other chips. It just ensures that the -1 system has sufficient performance to handle huge data streams.

However, there is another place that is prone to bottlenecks that needs to be dealt with, that is, mechanical external storage devices such as hard disks, CD drives, and D-VHS video tapes cannot hold back the ready high-speed electronic equipment.

-1 The hard disk used. It is a 10.5-inch hard drive made by Fujitsu in Japan. Tang Huan took it and added a lot of his own technology, thus forming an enterprise-level storage system with a capacity of 1338mb.

Among them, there are two main technologies, one is redundant array of redunda disks, and the other is - small computer system interface.

As the name suggests, it uses a controller to connect multiple hard disks together to provide better protection in terms of capacity, speed, and security. The 1.338gb hard disk capacity of the -1 system is a good application example.

It is not enough to have a big belly, but also must have sufficient data transmission speed. It is used to solve this problem.

It is a system-level interface standard used between computers and peripheral devices such as hard drives, floppy drives, optical drives, printers, and scanners. It defines a set of commands and communication protocols, and transmits data through the dedicated processor, which has the advantages of fast and stable speed, CPU occupancy rate and so on.

In fact, these technologies have long been used in Fangyuan servers and workstations in the high-end field. Otherwise, why should they launch such a fierce challenge to IBM's mainframes and minicomputers?

At present, the standard has evolved to the second version of -2. Compared with -1, the indicators have doubled, and 16 external devices can be connected at the same time, with a data width of 16 bits. The frequency is 10mhz, so the data throughput provided has reached 10mhz*16 bits/8=20mb/s.

The isa-32 bus with a bandwidth of 80mb/s also provides enough space for -2 to flex its muscles.

On the powerful hardware platform of -1, Vientiane, the most powerful and stable operating system in the Fangyuan computer system, is running. It can seamlessly drive various processing chips such as hard coding and hard decoding, and provide the best real-time response performance for video processing software.

Of course, a friendly graphical user interface is also indispensable. The directors in the TV station can use the mouse to perform intuitive operations based on their own professional knowledge and work needs.

Digital video is the basis for non-linear editing, which allows direct input of timecode or other descriptive metadata. Access to any video frame, rather than having to watch the entire clip to find the desired video frame.

This will involve a random access mechanism. Memory, hard disks, and optical discs can all achieve random access, while video tapes belong to sequential access.

Fortunately, compared with those non-digital storage videotape formats, d-vhs videotapes can also gain speed from descriptive metadata such as time codes when performing data retrieval.

After non-linear editing through the video processing software used, the final program is stored on cheap video tapes or somewhat expensive CDs according to the 7486 or 7576 resolution of the pal system.

However, the latter has an obvious advantage, that is, the video can be completely randomly accessed without being limited to sequential access.

This mechanism obviously brings great flexibility to the program broadcasting of TV stations.

During the Los Angeles Olympics, the audience naturally hoped to see which athletes won the gold medals and various wonderful moments in time. The workload of program editing can be imagined.

In addition, there is a time difference of about 4 hours between the western United States, where Los Angeles is located, and the eastern United States, the political and economic center in the traditional sense.

This also inevitably affects how the major American TV networks across the country present their programs to the audience in the first place.

Obviously, with the support of the -1 system, CNN has achieved a step ahead of all its peers. Everyone stays up late and overtime to catch up on the tapes, but CNN has an advantage in speed and quality.

Just like after Carl Lewis won four Olympic track and field gold medals, CNN was the first to launch a review of him from his debut to the present, with the help of special effects provided by video editing software, coupled with majestic music, that The program can be called a Hollywood blockbuster and left a deep impression on all audiences.

The quality of CNN's Olympic TV broadcast is definitely the best in the world. After other TV organizations were helplessly robbed of the limelight, they naturally sent out scouts one after another to find out the secret of their victory.

Finally, at the end of the Olympic Games, the -1 system, which was evaluated by the National Federation of Broadcasters as a frenzied combination of technology and art, was presented to them.

Seeing Liexin's joy, major TV organizations who are not short of money asked the price one after another, how can I get a set of -1 system?

The answer given by Tang Huan is starting from 500,000 US dollars. With different configurations, the cost flexibility of the -1 system is still very large

Seeing Liexin's joy, major TV organizations who are not short of money asked the price one after another, how can I get a set of -1 system?

The answer given by Tang Huan is starting from 500,000 US dollars. With different configurations, the cost flexibility of the -1 system is still very large (to be continued.)

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