Lossy audio compression first came to the forefront with the release of the MP3 (MPEG Audio Layer III) format in 1993, followed shortly by MP3 support in PC-based software such as Winamp and in portable audio players. (The emergence of various file-swapping sites and services didn't hurt matters, either). MP3's ascendance was preceded by many years of academic and industry R&D, and the pace of audio compression technology development has greatly accelerated since then.

It's a safe bet that when a chip company devotes precious development time and manpower, not to mention silicon area, to a specialized function, that company feels confident that it's going to get a notably positive return on its investment. Take Intel, for example, which embeds a video processing block called Quick Sync in its Sandy Bridge and successor Ivy Bridge processors, in striving to maximize performance and minimize power consumption versus host CPU- or integrated GPU-based video processing schemes.

The "time value of money" – the fact that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow – is an intuitive concept deeply entrenched in our business culture. The "money value of time" also gets a lot of attention; it's generally recognized, for example, that getting a new product out ahead of competitors' offerings often defines the difference between success and failure.

Back in August 2011, Jeff Bier's editorial "How to Make a Really Annoying Demo" neatly summarized the common attributes of poorly developed and executed product demonstrations that he'd auditioned over the years.

Lately, it seems that DSP engineers are becoming scarce.  Is this phenomenon limited to my local neighborhood?  I don’t know.  But whether it’s a local or a global phenomenon, I find it worrisome.  DSP engineers have been critical to innovation in the electronics industry, and will continue to be critical for many years.  If there aren’t many DSP engineers around, innovation will suffer.

As we’ve all heard, the cost of creating a custom chip has skyrocketed. Still, there are applications where a custom chip is justified—usually by specialized, demanding technical requirements. Today, custom chips often incorporate multiple processor cores.

Last month I made the case that multimedia applications are central to the value of smart phones and tablets. I also pointed out that it is difficult for app developers to utilize the multimedia processing power of these devices, which mainly resides in specialized coprocessors.