Interesting news from the video world today. Portland, OR-based Elemental Technologies says it has been working with Intel (NASDAQ: [[ticker:INTC]]) for the past year to make its video-processing software run on the chip giant’s new “Sandy Bridge” microprocessors, which blend traditional processing with graphics capabilities. The two companies are demoing the technology at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas later today.
Financial details of the partnership weren’t given, but it’s a big deal for Elemental, whose software until now has run only on Nvidia (NASDAQ: [[ticker:NVDA]]) graphics processors (GPUs). “We’ve got a viable second source for GPU-powered video processing. This will allow more flexibility and choice for our customers,” says Elemental co-founder and CEO Sam Blackman, in an e-mail.
If all goes well, it sounds like the Elemental-Intel partnership could improve the efficiency of delivering video to different kinds of devices. As Blackman sees it, the new technology “will continue to drive down the cost of creating the many different flavors of video streams required for adaptive bit rate delivery today.”
He adds, “At CES we are expecting to see the introduction of many new tablet, connected TVs, and mobile devices—if history is any guide, each will require additional resolutions, bit rates, and formats of video. To make delivering video to the ever-expanding universe of devices cost-effective for our customers, faster and more efficient architectures are critical.”
Elemental Technologies was founded in 2006 and is venture-backed by Voyager Capital, General Catalyst, and Steamboat Ventures. The company has raised $14.6 million in venture financing.
