MIPS Technologies and Dolby Laboratories have formed an arrangement to provide Dolby Digital Plus technology for the digital set-top box, HD DVD, and Blu-ray Disc markets. MIPS is among the first IP companies to support the new Dolby technology, which will be used in all MIPS processor cores.
Dolby Digital Plus is designed for HD programming. Digital Plus was designed to equal the quality of Dolby Digital, but requires less bandwidth, according to Dolby. The Plus codec is backward-compatible with existing Dolby Digital receivers.
Dolby Digital Plus has the flexibility to "maximize the full audio potential" of emerging HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats for multichannel audio response, the company said. The new codec is a component of system-on-a-chip (SoC) configurations that are designed for both new DVD formats' players, as well as for STBs.
