VITEC Licenses Codasip Bk5 Core for Multi-Purpose Use in Video Products

Munich, Germany – July 14^th, 2020 – Codasip GmbH, the leading supplier of customizable RISC-V® embedded processor IP, announced today that VITEC, the worldwide leader in end-to-end IP video streaming, has selected Codasip’s Bk5 RISC-V-based core for their cutting-edge digital video solutions.

VITEC is a pioneer in the design and manufacture of hardware and software for video encoding, decoding, transcoding, archiving, and streaming over IP. The company takes pride in delivering products that are easy to use, high-quality, low-latency, and most importantly, tailored to each customer's unique needs. That is where VITEC and Codasip find an inspiring common ground.

VITEC opted for Codasip Bk5 core customized for the purpose of video and audio stream handling. Initially, Codasip provided VITEC with an extended Bk5 64-bit configuration to be used in a video transcoder, but the multi-use license allows VITEC to use any Bk5 32 or 64-bit configuration in future designs and other arising use cases.

“The customization really is one of the strongest points of Codasip,” said Philippe Wetzel, CTO at VITEC. “VITEC serves multiple market segments with a broad range of IP video products, from IPTV & digital signage to broadcast contribution, so our products need to serve the remarkably diverse needs of our customers. For this reason, we were looking for an easily customizable core design with solid support, and Codasip was a perfect fit.”

Codasip’s off-the-shelf configurable and extensible RISC-V cores and patent-protected customization and verification technology were exactly what VITEC needed.

“We are thrilled to work with VITEC because they have customization at heart, just like us,” added Karel Masařík, CEO and founder of Codasip. “We understand their need to have a product tailored to exceed customer’s expectations and stay in the lead. Our technology is unique in allowing to do that very quickly and reliably.”

The Codasip Bk5 processor chosen by VITEC is based on the RISC-V open instruction set architecture (ISA). Bk5 features a single 5-stage in-order execution processor pipeline, optional caches, dynamic branch prediction, JTAG and RISC-V debug, and industry standard bus interfaces (AMBA). It also includes support for privilege-mode standard extension and memory protection unit or TCM, allowing it to easily run a variety of free and commercial RTOSs. The Bk5-64 variant with 64-bit address space and data support is ideal for modern data-intensive applications like storage and networking. Bk5 is fully configurable and extensible in compliance with the RISC-V standard.

About Codasip

Codasip delivers leading-edge processor IP and high-level design tools, providing ASIC designers with all the advantages of the RISC-V open ISA, along with the unique ability to automatically optimize the processor IP. As a founding member of the RISC-V Foundation and a long-term supplier of LLVM and GNU-based processor solutions, Codasip is committed to open standards for embedded processors. Formed in 2006 and headquartered in Munich, Germany, Codasip currently has offices in Europe and China, with representatives in Asia and Israel. For more information about our products and services, visit www.codasip.com.

About RISC-V

RISC-V (pronounced “risk-five”) is an open, free ISA enabling a new era of processor innovation through open standard collaboration. RISC-V enables you to take advantage of a standard base instruction set for software portability, yet a choice of standard or custom extensions to enhance computational performance. For more information about RISC-V, visit www.riscv.org.

About VITEC

A worldwide leader in end-to-end IP video streaming, VITEC’s solutions for broadcast, enterprise, government, military, and large-scale sports & entertainment venues are tailored to each customer’s unique workflow. VITEC developed the first MPEG-1 encoder for micro-computers in 1992 and has been innovating and leading the industry ever since. At the core of every VITEC solution is a commitment to offer products with the lowest latency and most robust IPTV capability on the market. For more information, visit www.vitec.com.