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Fairlight focuses on environmentally responsible technology platforms (8/10/2007)

Fairlight has published the environmental benefits delivered from its acclaimed Crystal Core technology platform (CC-1). The "Green" Whitepaper provides some background regarding Fairlight's 'green' computing initiatives and explains why Fairlight's Crystal Core technology is well positioned at the forefront of this important movement.

Over the past 25 years the computing world has changed dramatically. While processing power requirements continue to grow exponentially, CPU performance has begun to level off, to the point where IT architects are searching for a new technology paradigm. At the same time, emerging awareness of climate change has customers looking for solutions with a smaller carbon footprint. Fairlight answers both requirements with CC-1, an alternative processing platform that delivers increased performance with dramatically lower power consumption.

Fairlight's Crystal Core is a disruptive technology based on a new device that performs digital audio and video processing hundreds of times more efficiently than state-of-the-art CPUs or digital signal processors (DSPs). The benefits are staggering.

Compare the Crystal Core card to Fairlight's previous QDC platform:

á Size - reduced from the size of a dishwasher to a module that fits in your pocket
á Processing power - 8.5 GFLOPS from a single PCIe acceleration card compared to 8.0 GFLOPS from eight x 12 layer DSP cards and 64 Sharc DSPs.
á Power (and Heat) - reduced from 600 watts to 12 watts
á HEAT Ð 98% reduction in overall heat generated
á Performance - more features, more channels, lower latency, higher resolution
á Cost - slashed!
á Reliability - component count reduced by 99%, combined with reduced heat, results in dramatically improved reliability.

"By introducing the CC-1 platform Fairlight has taken a modern approach to deliver the acceleration required for power hungry media processing applications", said John Lancken, Fairlight's CEO. "By utilizing newly available technologies in the form of latest generation FPGAs, Fairlight has proven that there are massive savings in terms of power consumption, heat generated and component costs all of which provide a direct benefit in terms of carbon reduction".

Not only does Fairlight's new technology provide a cleaner a greener alternative, it also delivers a step change in performance and a platform that is ready and waiting for any new media standards and applications that may be required from it in the future.

John Lancken again: "The world's demand and appetite for higher performance computing is on the increase. The environmental issues relating to this increase must be addressed today. Many technologists believe the role of application acceleration co-processors such as Fairlight's CC-1 may provide the answers we are looking for". The future is in our hands.

www.fairlightau.com

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