Fairlight's Crystal Core Technology

While the demand for larger systems, better quality and lower cost grows exponentially, the professional media industry continues to rely on two decade-old technology. Today Fairlight announces a breakthrough – a new stream of audio and video products incorporating its CC-1 (Crystal Core Technology patent pending). This fresh paradigm processes data in a massive Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), architected into what amounts to a purpose-built media processing chip.

FPGAs deliver power at price points that will ultimately obsolete the established CPU and DSP/Time-Slice-Bus architectures. With very low processing latency and enough speed to provide smooth analog-feel tactile response, this technology is fast becoming the bench mark platform for the 21st century. 

Fairlight’s CC-1 is a media-optimised FPGA architecture that harnesses the step change in performance to support improved quality, faster job turnarounds and the development of new creative opportunities for many years to come. Crystal Core is an aggregation of IP cores, the results of 20+ man-years of development combined with Fairlight’s 150+ man-years of experience as a digital audio pioneer. In recent years FPGAs have emerged as the front-running computer engine. They can be programmed so flexibly that, aside from a host PC and some standard memory and “glue”, one chip forms an entire system. And a powerful one – single-chip applications include a 200-plus channel audio recorder/editing/mixer with full I/O and plug-ins; colour-grading for uncompressed HD video; integrated audio/video editing systems; DXD, Super HiDef and emerging 3D audio standards. 

For larger systems CC-1 uses a wide, fast data highway to interconnect across chips, between computers, or from room to room. CC-1 introduces a disruptive new technology by delivering improved quality, unparalleled flexibility, scalability, enlarged system scope, and a quantum leap in affordability. And the future looks even brighter – by employing FPGAs, Crystal catches the next upsweep in computer hardware development, transparently inheriting the power increases of each successive generation of silicon, continuing the promise of Moore’s Law long after its exhaustion in the microprocessor and DSP technology streams.