ViXS Systems Ports Orb Embedded Solution onto XCode™ Family of ICs

Orb Embedded Solution brings content virtualization to the Consumer Electronics world using ViXS hardware-based transcoding

TORONTO, Canada — Orb Networks and ViXS Systems today announced the porting of the Orb Embedded Solution (OeS) onto the ViXS XCode™ family of products.

“ViXS chipsets are powerful hardware-based transcoding solutions which expand the recording and playback capabilities of Consumer Electronics (CE) devices,” said Sally Daub, President and CEO of ViXS Systems. “Our cost-effective, feature-rich solutions enable the transition of existing digital TV distribution networks into tomorrow’s hybrid world of MPEG2/H.264-based broadcast/broadband delivery. As new types of TVs get connected, as set-top boxes and personal video recorders connect to Pay-TV services, and as broadband video offerings over the internet proliferate, ViXS chipsets will help today’s CE devices move in the direction of tomorrow’s CE services.”

The OeS platform illustrates the power of the ViXS chipset and puts the chipset in contact with the computing and networking community, whether in the home or through networks. Subsequently, devices and services enabled by the Orb platform detect the transcoding resource, and can then direct media — which require processing — to this available resource.

“Ultimately, consumers want to pick their media, pick their screen, and press play,” said Joe Costello, Chairman and CEO of Orb Networks. “The OeS platform enables device manufacturers to build better and synergistic product families because it bridges the gaps between content formats, media location, playback location, and user interface.”

ViXS offers a family of chipsets that support solutions used in today’s high-volume digital TVs, CE products, portable media players, as well as tomorrow’s hybrid systems. The XCode™ family of ICs provide the foundation for numerous in-demand CE applications such as quick conversion of video content from one format to another and HD/SD video transcoding/decoding/encoding. Other features and benefits of ViXS chipsets include:

“¢ Conversion support for MPEG4 AVC, MPEG4 Part 2, MPEG2, VC1/WM9
“¢ Bitrate, resolution and format conversion
“¢ High-speed transcoding up to 10x real-time
“¢ Support for iPod, iPhone™, PSP™ and other portable media player (PMP) formats

The OeS is a distributed, dynamic, flexible platform that powers and manages multiple devices, applications and services, and also enables transparent communication of media catalogs and computing capabilities. It is available for embedded operating systems, numerous programming languages, and is network protocol independent.