This group at Loughborough University in the UK would like to use sophisticated compression techniques in high speed networks. To make it all happen, they need to do it in hardware, and do it in parallel. This page has information about their efforts, along with links to papers and other information.

hhttp://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/el/research/esd/projects/parallel_comp.htm

A fast ASIC core designed for lossless compression.

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/el/research/esd/projects/web_xmatch/XMatchPRO_home.htm

These folks make NetCelera, a WAN compression product.

http://www.netcelera.com/

Expand makes a series of Network Accelerators. These are black boxes that perform lossless compression on packets being shipped across our WAN. Lots of competition in this area, so companies like Expand depend on innovative and proprietary techniques to give them an edge.

http://www.expand.com/

Driver and software for the jazPiper(tm) MP3 player.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/openjaz/

VisioWave is offering simple, modular, integrated and open-ended high-quality and reliable hardware and software solutions for compression, processing and real-time transmission of very high quality video over any network (IP, ATM, ADSL, cable, wireless, …).

http://www.visiowave.com/

The MP3elf is a low-cost Ethernet connected MP3 player that receives a MP3 stream from a local area network server and delivers it to amplified speakers or a Hi-Fi system. You can have a single source of MP3 files in your home or office, and browse through playlists from any MP3elf. The Universal IR receiver allows the MP3elf to respond to one of your existing Remote Controls (or use the on-board pushbuttons) and the LCD interface can display your very own choice of information. The elfServer software design allows compatibility with a range of different front-end options. As it is Java based, it can run on Windows, Macintosh, or Linux machines.

http://mp3elf.net/

ViXS Systems from Toronto, Ontario has announced the
XCode chip, which they say will adjust MPEG formats, bit rates, and
resolutions on the fly as data moves through an IP network. At a
minimum, this means the part can format MPEG1 to MPEG2 to MPEG4, and change resolutions from QCIF to standard to high definition and back again, depending on network bandwidth availability.

http://www.internetnews.com/wireless/article.php/1469111

This System-on-chip provides you with all the building blocks you need to perform several different kinds of compression and decompression, including MPEG, JPEG, and JPEG2000.

http://www.dspworx.com/cheetah.htm

DemoGraFX Inc. is going to be selling their video compression technology to semiconductor companies and system vendors. EE Times has the scoop.

http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20020904S0029

Vista Imaging makes this chip, designed to do the image processing needed for several different types of digital cameras. Among many other features, it has a JPEG compression engine.

http://www.vistaimaging.com/vicam3.htm

EE Times carries this announcement of a new PC video encoder chip from WIS Technologies. The chip is designed to do the heavy lifting that is real trouble for a host CPU, by taking care of things like DCTs and motion estimation. It relies on that same host CPU to do format conversion and other more mundane tasks. The chip currently supports video formats that include DiVX, H.261, H.263, MPEG-2, and more

http://www.eet.com/semi/news/OEG20020626S0029

This article in EE Times describes an effort to steer the Chinese
digital camera business onto the JPEG-2000 road. The goal is to create a chip that can be inserted into cameras for less than $10.
The supplier of the algorithm used in the chip is WIS Technologies.

http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20000707S0004

These folks make a box that transparently compresses network traffic. Designed to work on any sort of WAN interface, including T1, E1, ATM, etc. The web site includes an ROI calcuator that will convince you this box will pay for itself!

http://www.peribit.com/

EETimes has an article about this new single-chip MEPG-2 codec built around Toshiba’s Media Embedded Processor architecture.

http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20020515S0040

This company sells an IP core that performs lossless data compression. Not sure what algorithm they are using, it is described as “GEMAC’s data compression algorithm.” This algorithm was first published at DCC ‘95, and is described as a hybrid of ZL1 and ZL2, created with the goal of maximizing compression rate.

http://www.gemac-chemnitz.de/

EE Times reports that Europe’s ST Microelectronics is teaming up with 8X8 Inc. to produce chips aimed at the IP Telephony market. They are hoping to create chips that will be used in network video applications.8X8 will be supplying advanced compression and decompression algorithms for the chip vendor to sell in silicon.

http://www.eet.com/semi/news/OEG20020403S0026

Privately held Pulsent is promising a new video compression technique that can stream video across the net with only half the bandwidth of MPEG2. They’ve not only created a new algorithm but are also developing the chips to support it.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cn/20020325/tc_cn/show_time_for_new_video_c
ompression&cid=70

Hi/fn makes lossless compression hardware and software. They have a bunch of chips that implement LZS and MPCC compression, plus a library that does the same thing. I have been led to believe that these algorithms are partially or completely protected by patents.

http://www.hifn.com/products/Compression.html

Cisco makes a box you can attach to their routers. The box performs lossless data compression.

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/core/7202/portadpt/service/sa_comp/

RICAZip.com has proprietary lossless image compression technology called RICA (Reversible Image Compression Algorithm). RICA retains original file formats (e.g. TIFF, DICOM, BMP, TGA, PGM etc.). RICACom says We have yet to find any method that provides better compression ratios (for truly lossless), including wavelet. On a PII 450MHz RICA compresses @ 6MB per second and decompresses at 12MB per second.
Available as a standalone image archive app, Adobe Photoshop Plugin, Browser Plugin, and RICA SDK.

DCL reader Karen H. says: Evaluation of this product demonstates excellent compression ratios and it is also very fast compared to other methods I have used.

http://www.ricazip.com/

Nancy is the name of a lightweight video codec being used to send video email in the J-Phone design in Japan. The proprietary algorithm uses something called the Structured Meta Scale Polygon to compress data with fewer MIPS than its competition. Nancy can compress and decompress 30 fps at QCIF resolution with as little as 50 MIPS, using on ly 30-49Kbytes of memory.

http://www.eet.com/story/OEG20011130S0080

Analog Devices makes a JPEG2000 processor that can process better than 10 Megapixels per second. This chip is targeted towards the digital still camera market. You can find a press release on the page that says initial pricing is $14 in 10K quantities.

http://products.analog.com/products/info.asp?product=ADV%2DJP2000

The PM-36 is a chip that is touted as processing up to 110 MB of data per second. Oak says it is suitable for copiers, printers, scanners, etc.

http://www.oaktech.com/products/imaging/processors/icodec/pm36.html

EE Times reports that both TI and SMT are making chips that support the new MP3Pro format, clearing the way for its inclusion in portable audio devices.

http://www.eet.com/story/OEG20010921S0021

Stream Machines is selling a dedicate chip that will decode MPEG-1, -2, and -3, along with MP3 and other standards. The chip will be roughly $35 in quantity.

http://www.eet.com/story/OEG20010515S0052

Analog Devices has announced an acceleratory chip that supports the JPEG2000 image compression format. The chip is targeted towards digital still cameras, and is available now for $14 in quantitites.

http://www.eet.com/story/OEG20010511S0029

Texas Instruments announced the release of a DSP based Image Developer’s Kit, with support coming for JPEG2000, MPEG-4, and other standards.

http://www.ti.com/sc/docs/news/2001/01013.htm

Fourelle Systems, Inc.is the global market leader in accelerated content delivery. Venturi, Fourelle’s flagship product platform, speeds the performance of IP applications over WAN links including T1, frame relay, satellite, wireless, cable and dial-up. Venturi uses application level compressionand an optimized transport protocol to achieve up to 400% performance gains.

http://www.fourelle.com

Zapex makes chips, chip cores, and boards dedicated to real time compression, including MPEG-2 and AC3.

http://www.zapex.com/