Re: [oc] Re: MP3 decode core.

["Marko Mlinar" <markom@opencores.org>]

> It's patentented or copyrighted or something, and while you're allowed
> to right decoders, writing an encoder requires a license.  And so...
Yes, that is correct Fraunhofner institute (and one company - I cannot
remember
the name) has a patent on encoder. It is practically impossible to make
encoder without violating the patent. There is a fee of $25 you have to pay
for
the encoder to patent owners. But there are no problems with the decoder.

I was thinking that it would be cool to connect or1k (which is DSP) with
some
other very simple peripherals and make decoder. I can write SW for that.
If anyone is willing to help me, that would be very cool too.

> > There was an open compression that a group was working on,
> > wouldn't that be better ?
>
> Yes, definetely better.  Ogg Vorbis is what you're thinking of.
Although it is open standard it is not nearly as spread as mp3.
I don't know what is the current status of some GNU encoders,
but they are still available for download.

have a nice time,
    Marko