AmbaCast 6000 Platform from Ambarella Ushers in a New Era of Broadcast Video Processing

High Quality, Low Power, Future Proof Universal Encoding and Transcoding Platform Supports HD and SD, H.264 and MPEG-2 Formats 

SANTA CLARA, CALIF. – April 21, 2009 -- Expanding its leadership position in broadcast video market, Ambarella, Inc., the leader in low-power, high-definition video compression and image processing semiconductors, today introduced its latest offering, the AmbaCast 6000 universal broadcast video processor. The AmbaCast 6000 is the world’s first single chip encode/decode/transcode/transrate platform for H.264 and MPEG-2, up to 1920x1080P60. This innovative platform enables Ambarella’s broadcast equipment partners to reshape the future of broadcast industry, in terms of functionality, density, quality, and platform agility.

“With a single hardware platform, equipment makers can provide solutions for practically any broadcast market by selecting different software options. For example, the AmbaCast 6000 platform can be configured to deploy MPEG-2 SD/HD services for North American Cable TV market, or H.264 SD/HD services for Telco TV market in Europe.“ Said Fermi Wang, CEO of Ambarella, Inc. “Service providers can deploy improved MPEG-2 SD encoding with AmbaCast 6000 today, and transition their services to H.264 and HD, all the way to 1080p60, without any change in hardware. I am excited to offer the AmbaCast 6000 platform with its unprecedented flexibility and unrivaled video quality”

AmbaCast 6000 further raises the bar for broadcast video quality, delivered through innovative video algorithms. At the heart of the enhancements is Rate-Distortion Optimization (RDO) mode decision. Until today, enormous computational cost had limited RDO to non-real-time or server-farm based encoders, while multi-chip solutions suffer significant performance, power and quality degradation form the overhead of transferring data among its processors. AmbaCast 6000’s groundbreaking architecture delivers RDO on a single chip for real-time HD video broadcast, in production today. This platform, built in 65-nanometer (nm) process technology which is the most advanced lithographic node for manufacturing semiconductors in large volumes today, maintains low power consumption but aggressively pushes performance and functionality envelope.

“AmbaCast 6000 is industry’s first HD transcoder capable of Full Decode/Re-Encode implementation on a single chip,” said Didier LeGall, Executive Vice President of Ambarella Inc. “The intelligent re-encode function optimizes for the target compression format, image resolution, and bitrate by encoding baseband video while making use of the important information extracted from the original bitstream such as picture type and quantizer value. With AmbaCast 6000, service providers can enjoy the cost saving offered by transmitting H.264 to the head-end, while extending the life of their deployed base of MPEG-2 set-top boxes”

AmbaCast 6000 Platform Highlights:

One Platform for Many Services

• Satellite – Increase number of channels per transponder
• Cable – Increase number of channels per QAM modulator, support different video formats for Video-on-Demand (VOD) or Switched Digital Video (SDV)
• Telco – Increase the reach of the services, drastically improve video quality, enable 3-Screens application
• Terrestrial – Increase number of channels, support different video formats, e.g. MPEG-2 SD/HD for ATSC, H.264 for mobile and handheld

Unparalleled Video Quality

• RDO – World’s first single chip supports RDO implementation for HD video
• 3D Noise Reduction - Pre-processing capabilities include an advanced, highly programmable 3D spatio-temporal filters with Motion Compensated Temporal Filtering

Low Power

• High density – 65nm process and advanced power management technology enable dense and efficient form factor
• High reliability – High level of integration lowers system component counts, and low power reduces thermal dissipation so overall system reliability is improved
• Green technology – Help build environment-friendly Head-end offices

Future Proof

• SD to Full HD – Clear path for upgrade from SD all the way to 1080p60 Full HD
• MPEG-2 to H.264 – Unmatched compression quality for both MPEG-2 and H.264 to enable format migration
• Full Re-Encode Transcoding – Flexible transcoding from MPEG-2 to H.264 or H.264 to MPEG-2
• Proxy stream – High quality 2nd stream for Youtube, mobile TV or other emerging Internet and Mobile applications

Pricing and Availability

The AmbaCast 6000 product is currently sampling to customers. Pricing information can be obtained directly from Ambarella

About Ambarella

Ambarella is the technology leader in low-power, high-definition video compression and image processing semiconductors. Ambarella products are helping to define a new class of hybrid digital cameras that bring consumers unmatched high definition video and digital still images together in one device. Many cameras and camcorders have been shipping using Ambarella SoC. Ambarella‘s technology is also widely used in broadcasting and a large amount of TV programming worldwide is transmitted using Ambarella compression chips. For more information on the Ambarella product line, please visit www.ambarella.com.