i3 Micro Technology has announced the third generation of its embedded Linux based set-top box (STB). The new i3 “Mood Box” will ship in September with a new Texas Instruments DSP, and the capability to load CODECs on the fly.

(Click for larger view of Mood Box)

According to i3, the new Mood Box will support on-the-fly CODEC loading, to help operators optimize cost, quality, and bandwidth for different geographic regions. Supported file formats include Windows Media Audio series 9, MP3, MPEG2, MPEG4, MPEG4-AVC (H.264), and MPEG2 HD.

The Mood Box targets live IP-based TV, video-on-demand, pay-per-view, music-on-demand, Internet browsing, email, and other interactive services and 'infotainment' applications. It can be used with i3's streaming server products for IP TV and video-on-demand, or standalone with various third-party products and services. We covered a previous rendition in a detailed Device Profile.

The new, third-generation i3 Mood Box will be based on TI's TMS320DM642 DSP-based programmable digital media processor. TI's DM64x series are powerful enough to run Linux all by themselves, but the i3 design uses the DSP as a coprocessor to an unspecified RISC processor.

i3 says the forthcoming Mood Box will use a 2.4 series Linux kernel.

 
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