Broadcom Announces Next-Generation Advanced Video Compression Chip Supporting the H.264 Standard for High Definition Consumer Video Applications
New Video Processor Chip Allows Manufacturers to Economically Bring to Market Next-Generation Set-Top Boxes, DVD Players and Digital Television Entertainment Systems With Advanced Video Compression Technology by Early 2005
Broadcom Corporation, a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor solutions enabling broadband communications, today announced an advanced video decoder/audio processor chip that supports H.264 advanced video compression technology. An essential requirement for next-generation video/audio consumer products, the H.264-based compression technology (also known as MPEG-4 Part 10/Advanced Video Coding (AVC)) significantly reduces the bandwidth required to deliver high definition (HD) and digital video content over service operator networks and to store HD media on conventional DVDs and system hard disks.
The Broadcom® BCM7411 video processor chip is Broadcom's third- generation silicon implementation to support the H.264 video compression specification. Broadcom has been sampling previous generations of the chip to strategic customers since mid-year and anticipates customers will announce products incorporating the BCM7411 by early 2005. Before Broadcom's silicon solution, the only way to implement the H.264 compression standard was with software, which required a significant amount of processing power that was not cost effective for consumer applications. The BCM7411 is extremely efficient and specifically designed to enable manufacturers to cost effectively incorporate H.264 compression in a variety of high-volume product applications, including high definition DVD players, next-generation satellite and cable set-top boxes, personal video recording (PVR) products and IP set-top boxes. The key benefits that consumers will receive from equipment based on the BCM7411 include:
bandwidth that will be available for more high definition television
programs, video-on-demand services, and data and telephony services.
next-generation HD-DVD players.
system hard disk.
allows broadcast quality services to be supported over the limited
bandwidth of IP telephony networks, thereby enabling the IP set-top
box market.
The H.264 standard represents the current leading-edge compression technology and is designed to typically improve video compression performance by a factor of between two and three times when compared to existing MPEG-2 solutions. Originally developed as a joint effort between the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and ISO Motion Picture Expert Group (MPEG) standards bodies, the H.264 specification is now becoming adopted in a wide variety of next-generation audio and video applications.
"Broadcom's introduction of this advanced compression chip, coupled with our extensive offerings for consumer electronics products, enables us to be the first company to deliver complete solutions that support these new emerging audio and video consumer applications," said Daniel Marotta, Group Vice President of Broadcom's Broadband Communications Group. "The BCM7411 chip, with its advanced H.264 technology, opens the door for new market opportunities that have been hobbled by the lack of bandwidth necessary to support them over existing network infrastructures."
"We have established ourselves as a leader in advanced compression silicon technology by bringing the most efficient video codec (H.264) to market," said Peter Besen, Vice President of Broadcom's Consumer Electronics Group. "Moving forward, the flexible silicon architecture of Broadcom's BCM7411 allows for the implementation of other codecs, such as Microsoft's Windows Media® 9 / VC-1 video codec standards, and other future compression requirements in an efficient, cost-effective and timely manner."
BCM7411 Product Information
The BCM7411 video decoder/audio processor chip supports high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) video decoding with a flexible audio format processor in a single-chip solution. The video decoder can operate as a single-channel HD decoder or a dual-channel SD decoder, and supports H.264, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video decoding, making it an ideal solution for both broadcast and packaged media video applications. The BCM7411 is the first video decoder to support the H.264 High Profile specification, which incorporates advanced compression tools such as 8 x 8 transforms and dynamic quantization matrices.
The programmable audio processor in the BCM7411 incorporates a multi-standard audio decoder core, supporting MPEG-4 high-efficiency AAC (AAC+), MPEG-4 AAC (ACC-LC), Dolby® Digital Plus (Enhanced AC3), Dolby Digital (AC3), MPEG-1 Layer I, II, III (MP3) and pulse code modulation (PCM). The audio decoder also supports compressed audio pass-thru to a Sony/Philips digital interface out and PCM audio mixing.
The BCM7411 incorporates a video post processor as well. The processor supports dual channels, horizontal and vertical scaling, deinterlacing, cropping and chroma unsampling, and 3:2 pull-down and on-screen display.
The BCM7411 video decoder/audio processor chip is available today in sample quantities and is expected to be available in production quantities in the first quarter of 2005.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor solutions that enable broadband communications and networking of voice, video and data services. We design, develop and supply complete system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions incorporating digital, analog, radio frequency (RF), microprocessor and digital signal processing (DSP) technologies, as well as related hardware and software system-level applications. Our diverse product portfolio addresses every major broadband communications market and includes solutions for digital cable and satellite set-top boxes; high definition television (HDTV); cable and digital subscriber line (DSL) modems and residential gateways; high-speed transmission and switching for local, metropolitan, wide area and storage networking; home and wireless networking; cellular and terrestrial wireless communications; Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) gateway and telephony systems; broadband network and security processors; and SystemI/O(TM) server solutions. These technologies and products support our core mission: Connecting everything®.
Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and may be contacted at 1-949-450-8700 or at www.broadcom.com.
