IRISH SEMICONDUCTOR development company RedMere has signed up Monster, the leading brand of high-end audio and video cables, as its first customer.
Monster is using RedMere’s MagnifEye Active Chip technology to produce extremely thin cables that can connect high-definition electronics such as portable video and audio devices, home-theatre components and on-the-go computer storage applications.
The two companies claim the new Monster cables will be the world’s thinnest “smart” active HDMI-certified cables. HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) is the industry standard for connecting HD devices and is backed by electronics heavyweights such as Hitachi, Panasonic, Philips, Sony and Toshiba, which pioneered its use.
Monster has not yet announced details of the products that will feature RedMere’s technology, but they will have an extremely fast data transfer rate of 10.2 gigabits per second.
RedMere’s technology allows the cables to be far thinner than standard cables for connecting high-definition electronics.
“Using RedMere’s MagnifEye Active chip technology, Monster is adding intelligence directly into the cable, creating a range of smart cables which use the chip to adapt to the changing conditions in the application,” said RedMere chief executive Peter Smyth.
Noel Lee, founder of privately-held Monster, said he was “very excited” about working with RedMere. He said HDMI had progressed from being a way to connect televisions to being used with laptops, digital cameras, camcorders and other consumer electronics. He said products based on the RedMere technology would be available in the US in June and in Europe in September.
