CAD benchmarks may improve MP3/MPEG decoders

Richard Goering, EE Times
(06/26/2007 9:30 PM EDT)

Will an effort to develop public domain benchmarks for CAD research lead to more energy-efficient MP3 and MPEG2 decoders? It's a possibility, according to researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario (Canada).

Frustrated by the lack of public domain benchmarks for real-world applications, Nicola Nicolici, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at McMaster University, joined with two graduate students to develop Verilog source files for MP3 audio and MPEG2 audio/video decoders. What started as a side project to build benchmarks for CAD research has turned into a full-time effort to improve the energy efficiency of MP3 and MPEG2 micro-architectures.

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