Industry's Lowest-Power Full HD H.264 Codecs With the Broadest Feature Set Unveiled...

Industry's Lowest-Power Full HD H.264 Codecs With the Broadest Feature Set Unveiled by Qpixel

QL300 Family Delivers Unmatched Video Compression and Image
Processing Capabilities Across a Wide Range of Portable Applications
and Devices
TAIPEI, Taiwan--(Business Wire)--
Qpixel Technology, a Silicon Valley, USA-based innovator in video
compression silicon and software solutions, today unveiled at
Computex, its High Definition (HD) QL303 and QL305 codecs, the latest
members of its industry-leading, low-power, H.264 codec family. The
new chips provide the industry's broadest H.264 feature-set by
supporting Baseline, Main, and High profiles of the H.264 standard for
resolutions ranging from QVGA (320x240) to full HD (1920x1080). Qpixel
is also raising the power-performance bar by being the first to offer
full HD H.264 encoding at less than 275 mW of power, confirming
Qpixel's leadership in innovative codec design and its commitment to
Green Technology initiatives for lowering energy consumption in
consumer electronic devices.

"Consumer adoption of HDTV is rapidly increasing," said Michelle
Abraham, principal analyst with the industry market research firm
In-Stat. "As the resolution of TV screens grows, so does consumers'
appetite for HD content. This increases consumer interest in TVs with
high definition recording and encoding functionality. It also drives
the adoption for high definition encoding on such portable devices as
multimedia phones, camcorders and laptop computers. Qpixel's flexible
and rich H.264 encoding toolset and low power requirements positions
them well to serve the bourgeoning HD market."

The unique combination of flexibility and high performance
provided by the QL300 family stems from Qpixel's market proven
multi-core architecture. In addition to its powerful H.264 codec
engine, Qpixel's HD codec family features an on-chip DSP for flexible
audio processing, a JPEG compression/decompression engine for
simultaneous still frame processing, and an ARM core for audio/video
synchronization, bit stream packetization, and peripheral interface
management.

The QL303's set of flexible peripheral interfaces make the part
suitable for a wide range of portable devices, including digital
cameras, camcorders, and smart phones. The advanced power management
and the modular design of the chip enables power sensitive smart phone
devices to capture and encode HD video for as low as 100mW of power
(1280x720 at 15fps). Digital home applications can also benefit from
the versatility of the QL303, including consumer video chat, in-home
media distribution, and remote monitoring. Similar to its predecessor
(QL201B), the QL303 offers a flexible parallel interface allowing the
chip to seamlessly connect to a variety of system controllers, thereby
enabling an easy upgrade path for systems with less advanced or lower
resolution compression engines.

The QL305 offers the same rich set of audio and video compression
and image processing capabilities as the QL303; however, the inclusion
of additional peripheral interfaces makes the chip ideal for personal
communication and computing platforms including desktop PCs, laptops,
mobile internet devices (MID), and Webcams. The combination of its
advanced power management, compatibility with popular image sensors,
and the small foot-print, allows the QL305 to be integrated onto
standard sensor modules used in next generation consumer portable
devices, bringing a richer user experience for sharing User Generated
Content (UGC) and video chat applications. In addition, the inclusion
of popular high-speed serial interfaces allows the chip to seamlessly
integrate onto a PC motherboard and offer a multi-purpose video and
audio hardware accelerator for enhanced media processing in high
definition video communication and transcoding applications.

"When it comes to advanced codecs and high definition video
processing, the end application and the user experience are the real
drivers," said Kourosh Amiri, vice president of marketing at Qpixel
Technology. "The MIPS and the mega-pixels only tell a part of the
story. The real challenge is to figure out how to provide consumers
with the best video communication and media sharing experience given
the existing power consumption, cost and throughput constraints. These
are the issues Qpixel's H.264 HD technology addresses."

More about the QL303 and QL305

Each chip is a real-time H.264/MPEG4-AVC High Definition (level
4.1) Encoder/Decoder (Codec) that provides the ideal mix of
flexibility and power efficiency for consumer electronics
applications. Designed to be employed as companion chips, the QL303
and QL305 provide the perfect combination of performance and
flexibility to enable easy upgrade of existing designs to support
high-definition compression in H.264. The ability to support all three
profiles of the H.264 standard (Baseline, Main, and High) enables
users to trade off latency (less than one frame) with compression
efficiency depending on the requirements of the target application.
The low latency and full-duplex capabilities of the chips enable
efficient and reliable video communication. In addition to their rich
peripheral interface set, both chips are offered in 11x11 packages and
support Mobile DDR memory, to address applications sensitive to
foot-print and power consumption.

The QL303 and QL305 will be available in July, 2008. The 10K
quantity pricing will be $20 and $24 for QL303 and QL305,
respectively.

About Qpixel Technology

Qpixel Technology, an innovator in video compression silicon and
software solutions, specializes in digital consumer applications that
balance superior video quality with extended hours of portable
operation at mass-market prices. Founded in 2003, Qpixel is
headquartered in Cupertino, CA, with offices in Taiwan, Japan, and
China. For more information, visit www.qpixeltech.com.

Qpixel Technology
Kourosh Amiri, 408-252-0475 (APAC Media)
kamiri@qpixeltech.com
or
Jody Privette, 415-328-4700 (USA Media)
jprivette1@comcast.net

Copyright Business Wire 2008