Renesas Technology Develops Hardware IP Supporting Video Compression Standard VC-1 Decode Function

Decoding of MPEG-4, H.264, and VC-1 compatible video content possible with one IP

Tokyo, August 28, 2006−− Renesas Technology Corp. today announced the development of hardware IP (Intellectual Property) supporting a decode function for the VC-1^*1 video compression standard for mobile phone use. 

This IP features the addition of a VC-1 standard compatible decode function to Renesas Technology’s current VPU4 (Video Processing Unit 4) hardware IP enabling encoding and decoding for the MPEG-4^*2 and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC^*3 (referred to below as "H.264") video compression standards.

Background

Multimedia content has become well established in the mobile phone field, and video content is in widespread use. Up to now, mobile phone content has centered on MPEG-4 content used in video telephony and the like, while H.264 standard content used by the recently introduced one segment reception service is also becoming increasingly used. Renesas Technology developed the VPU4 enabling MPEG-4 and H.264 encoding and decoding by means of a single hardware IP, and responded to market needs by incorporating this hardware IP in SH-Mobile^*4 Series application processors for mobile phone use.

Meanwhile, mobile phone data communication speeds are increasing, together with display data volumes. At the same time, LCD panels with higher pixel counts and resolutions are being used in mobile phones, enabling still larger amounts of data to be displayed.

As a result, mobile phones equipped with a full browsing function have recently been released that allow users to view not only content created for mobile phones but also Web site content created for PCs. However, most content for PCs is created based on the VC-1 standard, and a built-in VC-1 compatible decode function is essential in order to view such content on a mobile phone. With the abundance of VC-1 content, a growing market demand for a built-in VC-1 support function can be expected in the mobile phone field.

Features

Against this background, Renesas Technology has developed an IP with an added VC-1 decode function for its current VPU4 hardware IP.

Features of the newly developed IP are as follows.

With three compression standards − MPEG-4, H.264, and VC-1 − supported by this new IP, use of an LSI incorporating this IP allows the development of applications supporting various kinds of content.

Renesas Technology will move ahead with the development of product applications for this IP, and plans to offer commercial applications in the second half of 2007.

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Specifications

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