Broadcom Accelerates WebM Video on Mobile Phones

The Broadcom® VideoCore® Mobile Multimedia Processor Enables Low Power, Hardware Accelerated WebM Playback on Mobile Devices

IRVINE, Calif. — Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that its VideoCore® mobile multimedia processor family now supports the recently open-sourced WebM video format. VideoCore’s unique programmable hardware accelerator architecture enables high quality, low power playback of WebM video content at full resolution, supporting even the most advanced smart-feature and smartphone displays. With hardware accelerated mobile WebM support, consumers will be able to playback a broader spectrum of Internet video content on handsets at higher quality and lower power.

Highlights/Key Facts:

• Audio and video encode/decode (codec) technologies continue to evolve toward delivering higher quality sound and video resolution at lower bandwidths. This evolution is particularly vital for supporting multimedia applications on resource-constrained mobile devices and networks. The WebM video format is one example of this evolution.
• Broadcom expects WebM to become a popular video format that will be deployed on a wide variety of consumer, mobile and computer devices for downloading and streaming content over cellular networks.
• More sophisticated codecs tend to require higher levels of processing, especially as video resolution increases. On mobile devices, software or DSP-based codecs suffer from increased power and resolution limits. Hardware-based codecs can deliver higher resolution and lower power, but generally require several years to appear in production handsets.
• The VideoCore processor utilizes a hybrid architecture with programmable hardware accelerators. This allows rapid support of new audio or video codecs, enabling hardware-based codec performance earlier to market, typically within 3 to 6 months of development start.
• The WebM multimedia format is currently in development and expected to be available to VideoCore customers in Q3 2010. Broadcom worked with Google during the definition phase of the VP8 video codec included in WebM, reviewing the architecture’s suitability for mobile applications.
• The highly flexible architecture of the Broadcom® BCM2763 VideoCore IV processor will enable it to support WebM video up to WVGA (800 x 640) resolution at 30 frames per second (fps). This enables low power, full resolution WebM video playback on the most sophisticated smartphone displays. VideoCore-enabled smartphones are expected to provide up to 8 hours of WebM playback on the handset display or up to 14 hours of playback on HDTVs connected via an integrated HDMI interface.
• The Broadcom VideoCore processor family currently supports prior generation Google video codecs VP6 and VP7 up to WVGA resolution at 30 fps.
• The BCM2763 is Broadcom’s next generation multimedia processor designed in 40 nanometer (nm) CMOS process to deliver industry leading performance and even higher integration, smaller footprint size and lower power consumption than competing mobile multimedia architectures. The BCM2763 features the most advanced mobile HD camcorder and video playback up to 1080p resolution, up to 20 megapixel digital camera and photo image processing, and 1 gigapixel 2D/3D graphics rendering for a world-class mobile gaming experience.