Pathpartner Technology Announces Hybrid Hardware-Software HEVC Decoder Optimized for Programmable SoC Devices at NAB’15

Fremont, CA - April 09, 2015 - Pathpartner Technology, a leading provider of embedded multimedia software services and solutions will be showcasing the Hybrid HEVC (H.265) Decoder partitioned optimally into ARM Cortex-A9 Software and FPGA Hardware on Xilinx Zynq®-7000 All Programmable SoCs at NAB’15

Hybrid HEVC Decoder uses ARM CPU and FPGA fabric optimally enabling flexible, highly integrated video systems at lower overall system cost.

Compared to pure hardware implementations that run on high-end FPGAs, our hybrid decoder uses the ARM CPU of Programmable SoC devices for highly sequential code like CABAC and hence uses less FPGA resources reducing power consumption and lowering cost.

Benefits of Hybrid HEVC Decoder on Programmable SoC for Video System Integrators

Since the hybrid HEVC decoder only uses a portion of the FPGA logic resources on the Zynq-7000 SoC, the remaining hardware resources can be used to integrate external display interfaces like DisplayPort, SD/HD/3G-SDI, LVDS for single or multi-panel displays for displaying the decoded video from the same chip. Compressed video can be brought to the HEVC decoder via standard interfaces like Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0, SD/MMC or PCI Express available as hardened blocks on the Zynq-7000 SoC. Besides, the HEVC decoder uses only one of the ARM Cortex-A9 CPUs in the Zynq-7000 SoC. The 2nd ARM CPU can be used for other software functions like handling network protocols, Graphics overlay, OS etc.

Key features of the Hybrid HEVC/H.265 Decoder:

• Universal Main profile decoder - supports all features of Main profile as per latest HEVC (H.265) standard approved by ITU-T/ISO
• Compliant to HM (JCT-VC reference code) version 13.0. Highly robust to error streams and supports high quality error concealment
• Decoder available as OpenMax component and as Gstreamer plugin on Zynq processors.
• Portable to other RTOS and HLOS on Zynq
• Scalable from HD (1080p) to UltraHD (4K) Video Resolutions
• Hardware part of decoder available with AXI4 Interfaces for easy integration into SoC
• 1080p30 version of decoder runs on Xilinx Zynq Z7045 device at slowest speed grade and with just one ARM core and less than 50% utilization of Hardware resources.
• Available with multiple combinations of ARM load and PL resource usage, suiting custom requirements.

“Since HEVC (H.265) standard results in reduced bandwidth requirement as compared to H.264 for high resolution videos; it is popular in broadcast, video conferencing, video communication, and video security applications. Using SoC based FPGA chips enable usage of built-in interfaces like USB, SDIO in the Zynq SoC, along with custom hardware logic and wireless interfaces. This is particularly useful for defence and custom secure communication network based applications”, said Ramkishor Korada, EVP- Business Development and Sales at Pathpartner Technology.

“There is growing interest from the video system development community to integrate HEVC into next generation systems,” said Aaron Behman, director of broadcast and pro a/v business segment at Xilinx. “We are pleased to see Pathpartner responding to this interest with its HEVC decoder solution targeting the Zynq All Programmable SoC and looks forward to customer adoption.”

Pathpartner has also been developing pure hardware HEVC decoder IP targeting Xilinx Kintex® Ultrascale™, Kintex 7 series and Virtex® 7 series, to achieve UHD 4K@60fps Main10 444 profile real time decoder. This higher performance decoder IP caters to high-end quality conscious OTT and VoD content providers, and will be available for evaluation and license by Q3 2015.

To know more about our product, please visit Pathpartner Technology at NAB-2015, Pathpartner booth SU10826, South Upper Hall

Also, please visit: https://www.pathpartnertech.com/product/H-265-video-decoder

About Pathpartner Technology:

Pathpartner Technology based out of California, USA and Bangalore, India is a leading provider of products and services for multimedia centric embedded devices. Pathpartner has extensive experience in Technology, Engineering & Business practices focusing on audio & video codecs, video analytics & vision, imaging, multimedia middleware, OS porting, system integration, applications and hardware design. We specialize in addressing challenges faced by leading Silicon vendors, OS providers and ODM/OEMs in their product development.
For more information visit: http://www.pathpartnertech.com.