Entropic, Opera develop HTML5-compliant browser for client set-top boxes

Collaboration Enables Service Providers to Deploy a Cost-Effective, High Performance HTML5 Experience

WASHINGTON — The Cable Show 2013 – Booth #2807 — Entropic (Nasdaq:ENTR), a world leader in semiconductor solutions for the connected home, and Opera Software, (OSE:OPERA) the world leader in cross-platform browsers and mobile advertising, announced today their collaboration on a joint solution based on Opera’s advanced HTML5 browser running on Entropic’s powerful set-top box (STB) system-on-a-chip (SoC) platform, the EN7588. While HTML5 browsers are available on PC, tablet and other mobile devices, the Opera HTML5 capability on Entropic’s EN7588 presents a breakthrough cost-effective IP-Client STB solution.

As Pay-TV service providers migrate in-home video delivery to an all-IP format, HTML5 will increasingly become an optimal format to carry multimedia content over IP, as the standard is already supported by a vast number of online content providers. The joint Entropic/Opera HTML5 STB SoC solution seeks to proactively meet original equipment manufacturer (OEM) needs while aligning with service providers’ content delivery strategies.

An advanced STB SoC solution, the EN7588 offers a dual-core 5000 DMIPS ARM® Cortex™-A9 processor with NEON™ SIMD extensions for high performance operation. ARM ecosystem allows Entropic and its partners to quickly develop and implement an efficient software solution, meeting OEM’s time-to-market (TTM) needs.

“Operators are increasingly looking to HTML5 as a standard for rich multimedia over IP networks. As a pure-play platform semiconductor company in connected home entertainment, we partnered with Opera to offer a compelling, optimized HTML5 solution to our OEMs and operator customers,” said Roger Gregory, vice president, Marketing, Set-top Box Products, Entropic. “In particular, we see the U.S. cable market transitioning from closed, proprietary video delivery mechanisms to open, standards-based solutions. Our efficient and superior architecture is able to run Opera’s HTML5 browser with hardware acceleration to ensure the optimal browser experience.”

“Opera worked closely with Entropic to bring our advanced, high performance HTML5 browser to the client set-top box platform,” said Aneesh Rajaram, senior vice president for TV & Devices, Opera Software. “As browser experts having deployed our HTML5 engine on tens of millions of STBs and TVs, we now have the opportunity to help operators embrace HTML5 and evolve their STB platforms to a format that is more IP-centric.”

This new Entropic/Opera HTML5 experience is being demonstrated this week at The Cable Show in Washington D.C., June 10-12, 2013, at Booth #2807.