Sand Video to release industry's first low power MPEG4-AVC/H.264 decoder core for video enabled mobile applications

AVC/H.264 Decoder Core is Industry’s First for Cell Phones, PDAs and Automotive Applications
  
ANDOVER, MA ‚ December 8, 2003‚ Sand Video, Inc., a recognized expert in Advanced Video Coding/H.264 semiconductor video compression technology, today announced the availability of the SV-IP01LP, the first AVC/H.264 decoder core designed specifically for mobile TV and other video applications on cell phones, PDAs and automobile navigation systems.  The decoder core is available to OEMs for a license fee plus royalty.

Based on Sand Video’s proven high-definition AVC/H.264 Main Profile SV-IP01 core, which launched in July 2003, the SV-IP01LP is a decoder core that has been modified to support AVC/H.264 Baseline profile real time decoding applications at very low power consumption.  
The core can support a range of resolution up to full D1 resolution at full real-time frame rate of 30 frames per second (f/s). The core is ideal for cell phones and other power sensitive applications because it is expected to consume less that 50 mW for CIF resolution at 30 f/s for devices fabricated in 0.13 micron foundry processes.  The SV-IP01LP’s power consumption is significantly lower than any comparable DSP solution.

AVC/H.264 delivers between two and three times the compression performance over existing standards such as MPEG-2; this extra efficiency is a key factor for wireless transmission of video to mobile devices.  
“TV-on-the-go may be the killer app for mobile devices, especially for cell phones,” said Peter Besen, President, Sand Video.  “The superior efficiency of AVC/H.264 allows high quality video to be transmitted at low bandwidths.  Sand Video’s SV-IP01LP decoder core will enable cell phone makers to incorporate the decoder into their cell phone SOC minimizing both battery drain and system cost.  They will then be able to deliver full-motion video that matches home-TV quality.”

According to industry analysts, the market for video-ready mobile devices is growing significantly.  IDC predicts that new 3G technologies, including video, will boost sales of converged mobile devices to more than 30 million units in 2004, up 111 percent.  Sanyo, Samsung and Nokia currently market video-ready cell phones while Sony, Sharp and others market video-ready PDAs. 

Limited TV on cell phones is already available in a number of countries.  In the U.S. MobiTV recently offered real-time video streaming to Sprint PCS customers.  Since August, Taiwan's Asia Pacific Broadband Wireless Communications (APBWA) has offered a real-time video-streaming traffic service as well as video-on-demand, video match-making and video mail. And both Japan and Korea are standardizing on AVC/H.264 for digital mobile TV broadcasts slated to start in the summer of 2004.

Beyond cell phones and PDAs, the market is growing significantly for other mobile applications and service offerings such as wireless telematics for cars that include in-car safety, navigation systems, and entertainment.  These technologies will increasingly depend on real-time full-motion video.
 
Another Industry First
Sand Video is the only company currently offering fully compliant, fully featured real-time high definition AVC/H.264 decompression.  In September 2003, Sand Video became the first company to demonstrate MPEG-2 to H.264 transcoding techniques and real-time high definition AVC/H.264 decoding at the International Broadcast Convention (IBC) Show 2003.  Previously, in October 2002, Sand Video was the first to demonstrate next-generation high definition codec technology.

“Sand Video is developing a range of product offerings to meet the increasing demand for video compression, whether for in-home settings like cable and satellite set-top boxes, DVD recorders and DVRs or for mobile devices,” said Mr. Besen.  “The SV-IP01LP represents a new and exciting AVC/H.264 opportunity for the company.”

Sand Video’s SV-IP01 and SVIP01LP are currently running in FPGAs.  The company is on schedule to deliver commercial samples of its single-chip implementation of the decoder as well as its full silicon-based codec chip in early 2004.

About Sand Video, Inc.: Sand Video is a fabless semiconductor manufacturer focused on developing and marketing superior next generation, standards-based semiconductor video compression technology for a broad range of video applications. Sand Video is a privately held, venture-backed company based in Andover, Mass. For more information on Sand Video, visit www.sandvideo.com.

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