STMicroelectronics' Award-Winning Nomadik Processor Family Ushers in Video for Next-Generation Handsets

GENEVA, June 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- STMicroelectronics, the leader in delivering high-performance, low-power multimedia solutions for next-generation wireless handsets, today announced that it has signed a worldwide license agreement with McubeWorks, Inc. to license that company's high-performance H.264 mobile decoder software for use in ST's award winning(1) line of Nomadik mobile multimedia application processors.

The H.264 video compression standard is widely used in digital video systems to improve image quality across limited data bandwidth. The platform of ST's Nomadik processor and McubeWorks' H.264 decoder serves as solid, supercharged engine for powering mobile video handsets running video-on- demand, digital multimedia broadcasting, and media player applications.

In particular, licensing the video decoder gives ST early entry into the fast-growing handset market for mobile digital video players, video phones, camcorders, and other similar, developing portable applications. In particular, video capability, like interactive television and video clips of movies and sports events, is seen as a key feature for third-generation (3G) cell phones. For designers of these products, the combination of the Nomadik processor and the software codec establishes a quick and easy path to developing high-performance, power-efficient scalable designs.

"McubeWorks was one of the first mobile H.264 video decoders on the market and remains among the best," said Patrice Meilland, Director of Marketing for Application Processor and Portable Platforms Division at STMicroelectronics. "With video capability fast becoming the new feature of choice for cell phones, ST's broad technology portfolio now gives product designers the best possible hardware and software combination to rapidly move into the mobile video, camcorder, and videoconferencing markets."

"Both McubeWorks and STMicroelectronics have pioneered the technology at the heart of mobile multimedia products," said Seung Jun Lee, chief technology officer for McubeWorks. "The marriage of our high-performance H.264 decoder with ST's outstanding Nomadik family of mobile processors is one that video handset designers everywhere should celebrate and adopt."

The McubeWorks' video decoder software running on a STn8810 Nomadik processor and Symbian's Series 60 v9.1 operating system will display at least 20 frames per second (fps) of video at quarter VGA (QVGA) resolution. Ongoing optimization is aimed at boosting the frame rate to 30 fps and resolution to that of the Common Interface Format standard. Moreover, the decoder software can be integrated with any operating system and is fully compatible with the Java Vision Toolkit.

About the Nomadik Portfolio

The Nomadik STn8810 belongs to a new generation of processors, designed for appliances and terminals requiring ultra-low power consumption, excellent audio and video capabilities, control of peripherals such as displays, SIMs, Multimedia Cards, open operating systems and simplified software development. The Nomadik family of processors is modem-agnostic, insuring the independence of the application from the communication bearer. This facilitates the portability and re-use of services and the user's environments in addition to several communications technologies (UMTS, EDGE, GPRS, WiFi, DECT, etc).

About McubeWorks

McubeWorks, as a multimedia solution provider, is leading the way in developing not only advanced codecs but also mobile multimedia application solution. Especially the multimedia codec developed by McubeWorks has been widely adopted by top-tier handset manufactures and chip makers, due to its optimized performance and efficiency. McubeWorks is providing end-to-end solution for VoD, Satellite-DMB, Terrestrial-DMB and DVB-H. In fact, McubeWorks has quickly become well known by commercializing the world-first H.264-based mobile phone and providing S-DMB solution package. Further information on McubeWorks can be found at http://www.mcubeworks.com

About STMicroelectronics

STMicroelectronics is a global leader in developing and delivering semiconductor solutions across the spectrum of microelectronics applications. An unrivalled combination of silicon and system expertise, manufacturing strength, Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio and strategic partners positions the Company at the forefront of System-on-Chip (SoC) technology and its products play a key role in enabling today's convergence markets. The Company's shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, on Euronext Paris and on the Milan Stock Exchange. In 2004, the Company's net revenues were $8.76 billion and net earnings were $601 million. Further information on ST can be found at http://www.st.com

(1) The STn8800 Nomadik multimedia platform received Microprocessor Report's 2004 Best Application Processor of the Year Award. The first of the Nomadik family, the chip combines an ARM processor core with programmable "smart" accelerators that independently and concurrently perform key audio and video processing functions. Noteworthy features of the STn8800 include superlative audio and video performance, scalability, ultra-low power consumption, and simplified software development.

Source: STMicroelectronics