Hantro Launches Four New Mobile Multimedia Products

3GSM World Congress, Cannes – 23rd February 2004 – Hantro, the leading mobile multimedia solution expert, today announced four new additions to its product portfolio. These announcements further strengthen Hantro’s unique position as the mobile multimedia solutions provider with both hardware and software based video coding products as well as the necessary middle-ware to create complete mobile multimedia applications.

H.264 Decoder
The new H.264 video coding standard provides high quality video at low bit rates and is ideally suited for applications such as video streaming to a mobile device. When compared to existing standards based video coding solutions, the gain in image quality at similar bit rates is significant.

VGA/JPEG Codec
Extending the capability of Hantro’s existing hardware codecs, the VGA/JPEG codec encodes up to VGA resolution video at up to 30 frames per second (fps) and can decode D1 resolution MPEG-4/H.263 video bit streams in real time. With up to six megapixel JPEG encoding and decoding implemented in hardware, the codec makes the still image processing capability of a mobile phone comparable to cutting edge digital still cameras.

VGA-Lite Encoder
Capable of encoding CIF (352 x 288) resolution at up to 30 fps and VGA (640 x 480) resolution at up to ten fps, the VGA-Lite encoder is a perfect solution for low power SoC (System on Chip) designs like 2.5G / 3G basebands. The VGA-Lite also incorporates JPEG hardware acceleration at up to four megapixels

Multimedia Engine
Hantro’s Multimedia Engine incorporates all of the key technology blocks required to integrate video into any mobile device. Designed to be easily ported to a multitude of operating systems, the Multimedia Engine helps to realise significant development cost savings. A flexible and modular design allows a choice of video encoder / decoder combination that best meets target market and host device requirements. Upgrades or change of key components (for example: video codecs, file format etc.) can be made without change to the core application logic.

Key technical features:

H.264 Decoder:

• H.264 Baseline
• Targeted for battery operated hand held devices
• Suitable for mobile video streaming and player applications
• Compatible with 3GPP release 6 proposed implementation (Release 6 scheduled to be frozen H1/04)
• ANSI-C implementation enables easy porting to multiple operating systems

VGA/JPEG Codec:

• MPEG-4 Simple Profile tools, H.263 Profile 0 tools and JPEG baseline
• Up to VGA resolution MPEG4/H.263 encoding
• Up to D1 (720x576) resolution MPEG4/H.263 decoding
• Up to 6 megapixel JPEG still image hardware encoding and decoding
• Approximately 300k gates in TSMC 0.13 technology
• Hantro’s proprietary motion estimation algorithm

VGA-Lite Encoder:

• MPEG-4 Simple Profile, H.263 Profile 0 and JPEG baseline
• Up to 4 megapixel JPEG still image encoding
• Less than 100k gates in TSMC 0.13 technologies
• Hantro’s proprietary motion estimation algorithm
• Unique bus wrapper interface facilitates integration to any platform

Multimedia Engine:

• Provides a high level API for fast application development
• Completely modular design
• Supports both hardware and software MPEG-4 / H.263 video codecs
• Supports GSM-AMR speech and AAC audio encoder and decoder
• Supports MP4 / 3GP file format
• Supports 3GPP streaming protocols (RTP/RTCP/RTSP/SDP)
• Core modules and application logic are OS independent
• Easily ported to numerous operating systems and devices
• Supports operating systems multimedia APIs if available

About Hantro
Hantro provides its customers with video solutions for handheld devices. Hantro has both hardware and software based MPEG-4 and H.263 standards based video codecs that have been delivered to customers and are proven solutions. Hantro’s product portfolio also includes video applications for video capturing, playback, messaging, streaming, and telephony. The company’s products play a key role in the development of battery-operated video-capable end products like cellular phones, still cameras, PDAs, camcorders, PC cameras, and web pads. Hantro’s investors are funds managed by CapMan, Startupfactory, Menire and Nexit Ventures. For further information please visit www.hantro.com