In an important move in the consumer technologies market, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) unveiled its Alchemy Au1200 processor, a low-power, high-performance, system-on-chip for portable video players.The processor has been optimized for personal media players (PMP) and enables new conveniences and features, including scalable digital video display (DVD)-quality displays, video content transfers directly from digital video recorders, and long-lasting battery life, AMD said in an announcement.AMD is partnering with digital video recorder (DVR) manufacturer TiVo to support the TiVo-To-Go initiative, which enables direct transfer of programs from a Series2 TiVo DVR directly to PMPs, laptops and other portable devices, AMD said. “TiVo-To-Go enables the secure transfer of broadcast content from a TiVo box to a personal media player and allows consumers to enjoy their TV shows anywhere, in the living room, on a plane, or in a hotel,” said David Sandford, director of technology & licensing business at TiVo. “Portability is a key desire for TiVo subscribers and key innovations in embedded processing, such as the Au1200 processor from AMD, help make it possible to transfer TiVo content directly to portable devices.”Once content is on the PMP, the Au1200 processor provides a DVD-quality display that can be scaled directly to larger screens without compromising image quality, AMD said. The Au1200 processor is designed to support industry-standard media formats, including MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV9, H.263 and DivX.Portable video players with the new Alchemy Au1200 processor will play MPEG files recorded by digital video recorders, eliminating the need for users to change those files to a different format, Rob Oliver, product marketing manager with AMD’s Personal Connectivity Solutions Group (PCSG), told IDG News Service. AMD has designed a reference platform for manufacturers that includes the chip and media player software, and the company expects devices to emerge in the sec-ond quarter of this year, he said. Handheld video players such as the Portable Media Center (PMC) devices championed by Microsoft are fairly new, IDG News Service reported. At last year’s CES, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates demonstrated a prototype handheld device that could store and play videos, and early versions are starting to show up on the market. AMD, based in Sunnyvale, California, also thinks the chip can be used in media devices such as digital media adapters, set-top boxes, and other video-intensive products. Because a relatively small amount of software is available for the MIPS architecture, AMD will probably not be able to sell this chip as a general-purpose processor for mobile phones and personal digital assistants as other companies have done with chips based on ARM Ltd. cores, Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst with Insight 64 in Saratoga, California, told IDG News Service. Technology Industry