Argon Design licenses Argon Streams AV1 to Realtek Semiconductor

Argon Streams AV1 provides comprehensive verification that AV1 decoders fully comply with the complete AV1 Specification.

Nov 28^th, 2018 – Cambridge, UK – Argon Design Ltd, known for its award-winning family of advanced video verification solutions, has licensed Argon Streams AV1 to Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

AV1 is the new open source and royalty-free video codec for next-generation Ultra High Definition video compression and delivery over the web. It has been developed by the industry wide consortium Alliance for Open Media and is designed to meet growing Internet demand for top-quality video scenarios across devices of all kinds and for users worldwide.

Argon Design has been contributing to the development of the AV1 codec for over 3 years, adding features, suggesting novel encoder tools, helping with debugging the reference code, improving codec performance and also writing the AV1 Specification for AOMedia, see AV1 Bitstream and Decoding Process Specification.

“We used, and continue to use, Argon Streams AV1 to verify that the AV1 Specification is an accurate and error free match to the AV1 reference code. By using those same verification bit-streams, our Argon Streams AV1 customers, can verify that their own AV1 decoder designs are fully compatible with both the AV1 Specification and the AV1 Reference Code.”, explained Alan Scott, CEO of Argon Design.

Yee-Wei Huang, Realtek’s Vice President and Spokesperson, adds, “As a member of AOM and an early adopter of AV1, it is vital that our AV1 decoder conforms to the specification and we appreciate the high level of confidence that Argon Streams provide during our verification process.”

Argon Streams is a family of conformance test bit-streams providing full coverage and verification of HEVC/H.265, VP9 and AV1 video decoders. The bit-streams are derived directly from the codec specification using Argon Design’s advanced compiler technology. The bit-streams are then generated using directed random numbers to ensure that they provide comprehensive coverage of all branches, functions, value ranges and cross coverage combinations in the complete specification.

Argon Streams is supported worldwide by CamverTech. For more information contact your local CamverTech sales representative, or email streams@argondesign.com.

Sample video frame from an Argon Streams AV1 bit-stream, shows the directed random number based approach.