Today's basic set-top boxes do not demand high graphical content, hence, there is no need for high CPU performance. However, with the surging demand for Internet browsing and multimedia applications, set-top boxes are being forced to process vast amounts of graphical data at blazing speeds. To achieve this high level of performance, a very expensive high performance processor is needed to implement the MPEG decompression. Unfortunately, to be successful in a cost sensitive consumer market place, it is imperative for the set-top box manufacturer to reduce cost while increasing performance.

The low-cost Spartan-II FPGAs can be used to implement the DCT/IDCT base coding scheme for MPEG. Using Spartan-II, the DCT/IDCT function can be performed 180 times faster than a mainstream 32 bit processor operating at 266MHz. This eliminates the need for a high-performance processor and allows the use of a more cost effective processor while significantly improving system performance.

Click here to obtain more details on Spartan-II high performance DCT/IDCT solutions.