ViXS Launches New HD AVC Video Processor Family

XCode™ 3000 Family sets a new standard for High Definition AVC video compression for CE products

TORONTO, Canada — ViXS Systems Inc., the leading developer of video processing solutions, today announced the introduction of its MPEG4 AVC (MPEG4 Part 10/H.264) Transcoder/Encoder/Decoder system-on-a-chip (SOC) named XCode™ 3290. ViXS’ current XCode™ 2100 Series has been leading the way in the Set-top, Consumer Electronics (CE) and PC markets in terms of Video Quality, Performance and Cost for encoding and transcoding solutions. ViXS has used this extensive video processing knowledge to build the most advanced AVC product to hit the market to date with the XCode™ 3290. Set-top and CE manufacturers will now have the ability to build AVC home video products which are cost effective but still provide the sizzle factor required in these highly competitive markets.

The XCode™ 3290 is perfectly poised to be integrated into home video products such as High Definition (HD) STBs, PVRs, DTVs, Blu-Ray/HD DVD recorders, Media Servers and Network Attached Storage (NAS) products. The XCode™ 3290’s powerful multi-core processors allow for multiple and/or advanced applications such as PVR, DLNA and Networking without the aid of an external CPU. The XCode™ 3290’s Dual HD Transcoding, Encoding and dense peripheral integration make it a shoe-in for CE manufacturers building next generation home video products that have storage, networking and content protection needs. Following are some of the key video processing capabilities of the XCode™ 3290:

● MPEG2 HD->AVC HD/SD Transcoding
● AVC HD->MPEG2 HD Transcoding
● HD MPEG2/AVC Encoding
● Dual SD MPEG2/AVC Encoding
● HD Decoding MPEG2/AVC Decoding
● VC-1 Encoding/Decoding/Transcoding

A companion version, the XCode™ 3122/3111 will also be available to enhance existing SoC products. This will allow OEMs and ODMs to add AVC encoding/decoding and/or transcoding to their existing MPEG2 designs without having to radically change their system architecture, allowing for faster time to market of an advanced CODEC product.

The market demand for a powerful Transcode engine has never been greater due to consumer’s increased requirement to store greater amounts of content on HDDs and other storage media such as flash/memory cards. With the XCode™ 3290, consumers now have the ability to extend recording time up to 6X with ViXS’ patented Transcoding technology that can take MPEG2 or AVC streams and squeeze content to lower bitrates, resolutions and video formats. Consumers will also benefit from the ability to quickly convert stored video content at lightening fast speeds to a format viewable by mobile devices such as iPODs, PSPs and Mobile Phones.

The XCode™ 3290 comes with Dual Ethernet, Dual SATA, and Dual USB 2.0 ports in addition to PCI, PCIe, DDR2, and NAND Flash interfaces, the XCode™ 3290 offers the most advanced and integrated solution on the market. CE manufacturers can now build products that allow consumers to quickly convert video content for portable devices, generate user video content, watch TV remotely, time-shift, play YouTUBE content, distribute video over IP networks, and record multiple TV programs — all with a single XCode™ 3290.

To ensure video content remains protected and that proper conditional access is maintained, XCode™ 3290 provides a full range of features including integrated Cable Card, CAM/CI, and Smart Card interfaces, multiple encryption and decryption engines (including 3DES and AES) and support for multiple DRM schemes such as Windows Media DRM 10. As content owners and distributors become increasingly concerned with protection of their content, XCode™ 3290 is ready to assist manufacturers as they begin to develop home video products that can securely decode, encode and transcode protected video content while still maintaining full content protection and/or Digital Rights Management (DRM).

“XCode™ 3290, with its powerful Video Processor Unit (VPU), will pave the way for OEMs to build a new class of products that will give consumers unprecedented use case scenarios for managing their multimedia content” said Sally Daub, President and CEO of ViXS Systems. ” XCode™ 3290 will be a must have component for CE and PC manufacturers looking to make a serious dent in their respective markets.”

Samples of the XCode™ 3290 will be available October 2007 with a comprehensive software development kit (SDK) operating under Linux and Window Operating Systems giving developers the greatest of flexibility and choice that meets their development needs. For pricing information on the complete line-up of the XCode™ 3000 family , please contact sales@vixs.com for further information.