Microsoft, GridIron unveil encoding accelerator
eWeek | at | by Mike
GridIron Software, a developer of grid computing products, and Microsoft soon will be shipping an encoding product designed to significantly speed digital video encoding by harnessing networked computing systems.
Unveiled at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas this week, the GridIron X-Factor for Windows Media Encoder divides up digital video encoding work so it can be processed by multiple computers rather than by one machine.
Although there are other encoding products on the market, the X-Factor is the first software program to handle this type of task by using grid computing, said Gord Watts, vice president of marketing at Ottawa, Ontario-based GridIron Software Inc. Many encoding products are hardware-based, he added.