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IRVINE, Calif., Dec 6, 2004 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor solutions enabling broadband communications, today announced an advanced video decoder/audio processor chip that supports H.264 advanced video compression technology. An essential requirement for next-generation video/audio consumer products, the H.264-based compression technology (also known as MPEG-4 Part 10/Advanced Video Coding (AVC)) significantly reduces the bandwidth required to deliver high definition (HD) and digital video content over service operator networks and to store HD media on conventional DVDs and system hard disks.
The Broadcom® BCM7411 video processor chip is Broadcom's third- generation silicon implementation to support the H.264 video compression specification. Broadcom has been sampling previous generations of the chip to strategic customers since mid-year and anticipates customers will announce products incorporating the BCM7411 by early 2005. Before Broadcom's silicon solution, the only way to implement the H.264 compression standard was with software, which required a significant amount of processing power that was not cost effective for consumer applications. The BCM7411 is extremely efficient and specifically designed to enable manufacturers to cost effectively incorporate H.264 compression in a variety of high-volume product applications, including high definition DVD players, next-generation satellite and cable set-top boxes, personal video recording (PVR) products and IP set-top boxes. The key benefits that consumers will receive from equipment based on the BCM7411 include:
- Improved services over satellite and cable networks due to increased bandwidth that will be available for more high definition television programs, video-on-demand services, and data and telephony services.
- Greater digital media capacity for storing video and audio programs on next-generation HD-DVD players.
- Increased capacity for storing video and audio programming on a PVR system hard disk.
- Reduction in the bandwidth of audio/video content to a level that allows broadcast quality services to be supported over the limited bandwidth of IP telephony networks, thereby enabling the IP set-top box market.
The H.264 standard represents the current leading-edge compression technology and is designed to typically improve video compression performance by a factor of between two and three times when compared to existing MPEG-2 solutions. Originally developed as a joint effort between the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and ISO Motion Picture Expert Group (MPEG)
standards bodies, the H.264 specification is now becoming adopted in a wide variety of next-generation audio and video applications.
"Broadcom's introduction of this advanced compression chip, coupled with our extensive offerings for consumer electronics products, enables us to be the first company to deliver complete solutions that support these new emerging audio and video consumer applications," said Daniel Marotta, Group Vice President of Broadcom's Broadband Communications Group. "The BCM7411 chip, with its advanced H.264 technology, opens the door for new market opportunities that have been hobbled by the lack of bandwidth necessary to support them over existing network infrastructures."
"We have established ourselves as a leader in advanced compression silicon technology by bringing the most efficient video codec (H.264) to market," said Peter Besen, Vice President of Broadcom's Consumer Electronics Group. "Moving forward, the flexible silicon architecture of Broadcom's BCM7411 allows for the implementation of other codecs, such as Microsoft's Windows Media® 9 / VC-1 video codec standards, and other future compression requirements in an efficient, cost-effective and timely manner."
BCM7411 Product Information
The BCM7411 video decoder/audio processor chip supports high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) video decoding with a flexible audio format processor in a single-chip solution. The video decoder can operate as a single-channel HD decoder or a dual-channel SD decoder, and supports H.264, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video decoding, making it an ideal solution for both broadcast and packaged media video applications. The BCM7411 is the first video decoder to support the H.264 High Profile specification, which incorporates advanced compression tools such as 8 x 8 transforms and dynamic quantization matrices.
The programmable audio processor in the BCM7411 incorporates a multi-standard audio decoder core, supporting MPEG-4 high-efficiency AAC (AAC+), MPEG-4 AAC (ACC-LC), Dolby® Digital Plus (Enhanced AC3), Dolby Digital (AC3), MPEG-1 Layer I, II, III (MP3) and pulse code modulation (PCM). The audio decoder also supports compressed audio pass-thru to a Sony/Philips digital interface out and PCM audio mixing.
The BCM7411 incorporates a video post processor as well. The processor supports dual channels, horizontal and vertical scaling, deinterlacing, cropping and chroma unsampling, and 3:2 pull-down and on-screen display.
The BCM7411 video decoder/audio processor chip is available today in sample quantities and is expected to be available in production quantities in the first quarter of 2005.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor solutions that enable broadband communications and networking of voice, video and data services. We design, develop and supply complete system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions incorporating digital, analog, radio frequency (RF), microprocessor and digital signal processing (DSP) technologies, as well as related hardware and software system-level applications. Our diverse product portfolio addresses every major broadband communications market and includes solutions for digital cable and satellite set-top boxes; high definition television (HDTV); cable and digital subscriber line (DSL) modems and residential gateways; high-speed transmission and switching for local, metropolitan, wide area and storage networking; home and wireless networking; cellular and terrestrial wireless communications; Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) gateway and telephony systems; broadband network and security processors; and SystemI/O™ server solutions. These technologies and products support our core mission: Connecting everything®.
Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and may be contacted at 1-949-450-8700 or at www.broadcom.com.
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
All statements included or incorporated by reference in this release, other than statements or characterizations of historical fact, are forward- looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us, all of which are subject to change. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," "potential," "continue," "ongoing," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement.
Important factors that may cause such a difference for Broadcom in connection with the BCM7411 product include, but are not limited to, general economic and political conditions and specific conditions in the markets we address, including the volatility in the technology sector and semiconductor industry, trends in the broadband communications markets in various geographic regions, and possible disruption in commercial activities related to terrorist activity or armed conflict in the United States and other locations; the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Broadcom's technologies and products in the markets for cable, satellite, HDTV, IP, and DSL silicon applications; delays in the adoption and acceptance of industry standards in those markets; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders and our ability, as well as the ability of our customers, to manage inventory; our ability to retain, recruit and hire key executives, technical personnel and other employees in the positions and numbers, with the experience and capabilities, and at the compensation levels needed to implement our business and product plans; our ability to specify, develop or acquire, complete, introduce, market and transition to volume production new products and technologies in a cost-effective and timely manner; the gain or loss of a key customer, design win or order; competitive pressures and other factors such as the qualification, availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our products; our ability to scale our operations in response to changes in demand for our products and services; the timing of customer-industry qualification and certification of our products and the risks of non-qualification or non-certification; our ability to timely and accurately predict market requirements and evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new markets; changes in our product or customer mix; the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales; intellectual property disputes and customer indemnification claims and other types of litigation risk; the availability and pricing of third party semiconductor foundry and assembly capacity and raw materials; fluctuations in the manufacturing yields of our third party semiconductor foundries and other problems or delays in the fabrication, assembly, testing or delivery of our products; the risks of producing products with new suppliers and at new fabrication and assembly facilities; problems or delays that we may face in shifting our products to smaller geometry process technologies and in achieving higher levels of design integration; the quality of our products and any remediation costs; the effectiveness of our expense and product cost control and reduction efforts; the risks and uncertainties associated with our international operations, particularly in light of recent events; the effects of natural disasters, public health emergencies, international conflicts and other events beyond our control; the level of orders received that can be shipped in a fiscal quarter; and other factors.
Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss the foregoing risks as well as other important risk factors that could contribute to such differences or otherwise affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of this date. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason.
Broadcom®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything®, the Connecting everything logo, and SystemI/O™ are trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. Microsoft and Windows Media are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Dolby is a trademark of Dolby Laboratories. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
Broadcom Press Contacts
Laura Brandlin or
Bill Blanning
Corporate Communications
949-926-5108 or 949-926-5555
lbrandlin@broadcom.com or
blanning@broadcom.com
Broadcom Technical Contact
Joseph Del Rio
Product Line Manager
408-922-8391
delrio@broadcom.com
Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
T. Peter Andrew
Sr. Director, Investor Relations
949-926-5663
andrewtp@broadcom.com
SOURCE Broadcom Corporation
Press, Laura Brandlin, +1-949-926-5108, lbrandlin@broadcom.com, or Bill Blanning, +1-949-926-5555, blanning@broadcom.com, Corporate Communications, or Technical, Joseph Del Rio, Product Line Manager, +1-408-922-8391, delrio@broadcom.com, or Investor Relations, T. Peter Andrew, Sr. Director, Investor Relations, +1-949-926-5663, andrewtp@broadcom.com
http://www.broadcom.com
