Summaries and Thoughts
Given the five main stages of Avivo, here's the summaries already written for each.Summaries
Capture Points
The things to take from the Capture stage are the new 12-bit ADC in Theater 550 PRO, versus the older 10-bit resolution implementation in Theater 200, and the implementation of 3D comb (analysis of future frame data to affect the signal data of the first, to improve quality) over the 2D-only filter in older hardware, as the quality improvements that define the Capture stage of Avivo.
Don't forget that there's audio capture including hardware AV-sync in 550 PRO, too. Oft neglected (and sadly by us for this article, too), the audio side isn't a strictly a part of Avivo but the two will go hand in hand.
Encode Points
The key thing to take from the Encode stage is support for H.264 AVC encode in hardware (although not the entire set of stages). That's the really big thing given it's pervasive nature in upcoming consumer electronics like XBox360, PS3, PSP, HD-DVD, HD broadcast transmissions via DVB-T, and much more. Assist for the other mentioned CODECs follows on from the H.264 AVC focus since they're all, really, just one big happy family in terms of processing. That's a generalisation of sorts, but it'll do for explaining Avivo.
So your R5-series GPU will give you a hand processing hard-to-compute-with-a-CPU video. All good, ja? And if you're not encoding video, you're decoding it.
Decode Points
The biggest thing to take from the Decode stage is that Avivo-capable products have dedicated gates for video decode. Computationally expensive formats like H.264 get significant assist by the GPU according to the Avivo literature, both by fixed function hardware, programmable video-only silicon and the 3D shader hardware if needed.
Process Points
G70 got motion-adaptive deinterlacing when combined with the $20 PureVideo software decoder. Avivo gets similar ability with vector-adaptive deinterlacing, combining per-pixel analysis with directional data. AA for video, yay!
Aaaah, Display stage next. Vindication of my first-page rant and much more. This bit is the good stuff in Avivo, trust me.
Display Points
The big bits from Display? That'll be the 10bpc from start to finish, the 10bpc simulation via dithering on digital outputs, the 10bpc spat out over analogue too, and the dual dual-link TMDS transmitters and all the joys they bring.
ATI claim the most flexible output connectivity in consumer graphics hardware and, should it all turn out this way, they'll be perfectly right.
Thoughts
Adding it all up, it appears that on this first look that there's some serious intent in Avivo to shake up how display controllers and video processing gets implemented on a graphics card. From video processing, encode help of H.264 (we can't emphasise enough how big of a video format MPEG-4 AVC is already and will be in the future), decode assist for the same format (and others of course) and then onto the brand new display controller that seemingly does the lot, from 10bpc processing and output to a pair of dual-link digital transmitters for DVI/HDMI.I've mentioned in public recently that R520 isn't all about the performance. This is one of the main reasons why. The 10:10:10 output precision hints at the same buffer format being available to 3D applications for higher dynamic range rendering (2 spare bits for encoding info for other stuff like tonemappers too, remember) in R5-series GPUs. The lack of any real resolution or refresh limitation with R5-series Crossfire is not to be overlooked, either.
Given the rest of R5's specs, especially in the realms of fragment processing and much-improved pixel ROPs, Avivo on top makes for some serious salivating to be done between now and launch. Avivo, while a totally pants name, certainly isn't pants on paper.
We await reference and retail hardware with baited breath. HEXUS will have the full scoop for you in due course, of course.
