High Performance Low Power Codecs for Various Popular Use Cases

February 19, 2010 — Ittiam Systems today announced its range of smart video codecs with High Definition (HD) 720p performance for the mobile connected world.

These codecs utilize a novel architecture to enable high-end multimedia capabilities for mobile applications by maximizing the utilization of resources on today's System-on-Chip (SoC) designs. The architecture of the codecs allow them to scale across the nature of the content and processing power available on the mobile device.

These smart codecs have been implemented on the Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) OMAP™3 applications processor that includes both a TI TMS320C64x+™ DSP and an ARM® Cortex™ A8 core. The codecs, both decoders and encoders, utilize this multi-core architecture to execute either on the DSP, the ARM or on both cores to reach HD 720p resolution even for complex video coding standards and profiles.

The codec architecture scales across the operating points of the OMAP 3 processor. The ARM core usage is minimized at higher operating frequencies of the DSP, while at lower frequencies the same codec retains its performance by utilizing the Cortex-A8 subsystem with NEON™ optimizations. The codecs similarly scale across the resolution, frame rate and bit rate of the content.

This scalable implementation is available for a wide set of codecs, including H.264 encode and decode, MPEG-4 encode and decode and VC-1/WMV9 decode, which are amongst the most widely used standards for wireless handsets, smartphones, Mobile Internet Devices (MID), Portable Media Players (PMP) and netbooks

While a DSP-only codec is capable of MPEG-4-Simple Profile (SP) decode and H.264 Baseline Profile (BP) decode at 720p , the dual-core implementation makes it possible to realize H.264 Main Profile (MP) and High Profile (HP) 720p decodes at 30 frames per second (fps) and also enables H.264 BP and MPEG-4 SP encoding at 720p at30 fps.

"The ability to record and playback high definition content is becoming a must in the connected world, however the battery life and processing power constraints of mobile devices." stated Marc Guillaumet, Vice President Marketing at Ittiam Systems. "We have built an innovative software architecture that works on TI's OMAP 3 platform and can adapt to the processing power of the chipset while enabling a high-quality experience to the end user. We strongly believe that this new way of performing video is a good alternative to fixed solutions and leads the way for even more advanced multi-view software solutions in the near future."

The codecs have been optimized for processing load, memory and power consumption. They also support error resilience toolsets and are delivered with standard APIs for TI's xDM and the OpenMAX IL standard for easy re-use of the codecs across OSes. The codecs have been integrated and tested with popular frameworks in the mobile and wireless space, such as Android, Windows Mobile, Linux, and Gstreamer. The plug-ins have been optimized for each environment.

For more information on technical details or demonstration, visit the Ittiam website at www.ittiam.com or contact Email Contact.

About Ittiam

Ittiam Systems Private Limited, headquartered in Bangalore, is a technology product company singularly focused on digital signal processing systems in media and communication. The company operates through its network of offices and representatives around the world. Ittiam's customers include Fortune 100 companies and are distributed across U.S., Europe, Japan and Asia. Since 2004 the company has been consistently rated as the 'World's Most Preferred DSP IP Supplier' in the annual surveys conducted by Forward Concepts Incorporated. In 2005 Ittiam had been selected by Red Herring into the top 100 private companies in Asia. In 2007, Ittiam received the NASSCOM India IT Innovation Award, a prestigious recognition of the company's innovative product designs. For more details, visit www.ittiam.com.

About the Texas Instruments Developer Network

Ittiam Systems is a member of the TI Developer Network, a community of respected, well-established companies offering products and services based on TI analog and digital technology. The Network provides a broad range of end-equipment solutions, embedded software, engineering services and development tools that help customers accelerate innovation to make the world smarter, healthier, safer, greener and more fun.
www.ti.com/dspdevnetwork.

About the ARM Connected Community

The ARM Connected Community is a global network of more than 450 companies aligned to provide a complete solution, from design to manufacture and end use, for products based on the ARM architecture. ARM offers a variety of resources to Community members, including promotional programs and peer-networking opportunities that enable a variety of ARM Partners to come together to provide end-to-end customer solutions. For more information, please visit www.arm.com/community.



Contact:

Audrey Charbonnier
Ittiam Systems Europe
Tel: +33-144-507-794
Email: Email Contact