MIPS Licenses Processor to Novatek for Multimedia SoC Designs

MIPS32® 24KEc™ is Core of Choice for DTV, STB, DVD, Portable Media Applications

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — MIPS Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:MIPS), a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for home entertainment, communications, networking and portable multimedia markets, today announced that Novatek Microelectronics Corp. has licensed the MIPS32® 24KEc™ processor core to power advanced chip designs for a variety of multimedia devices for the digital home. Based in Taiwan, Novatek is a world leader in the development of solutions for high-growth markets including flat panel displays, DTVs, set-top boxes (STBs), digital still cameras and portable media devices.

“Today’s consumers want entertainment devices that are both feature-rich and cost- and power-efficient,” said Tommy Chen, vice president, Novatek Microelectronics. “Working with MIPS Technologies and the industry-standard MIPS architecture gives us the flexibility to design superior solutions that surpass competitive offerings.”

“We’re very pleased that Novatek has selected our 24KEc core to design SoCs uniquely tailored to their target markets,” said Art Swift, vice president of marketing, MIPS Technologies. “Leveraging our combined expertise and MIPS’ leadership in the digital home will allow Novatek to maintain its competitive edge and extend its considerable reach around the world.”

The MIPS32 24KE™ core family leverages the high performance 24K™ microarchitecture while incorporating the MIPS® DSP Application-Specific Extension (ASE). These instructions improve signal processing performance up to 200 percent over a range of embedded applications when compared to RISC implementations without the DSP ASE. The 24KE family significantly reduces overall SoC die area, cost and power consumption. The 24KE core family is supported by a complete suite of software development tools, the MIPS DSP Library and a third-party DSP applications network. This enables SoC designers to work in a single design environment and lower system costs by migrating DSP functionality onto a 24KE core.