Amphion launches high-definition MPEG-2 core solution for consumer digital TV products and HDTV

CES 2001, Las Vegas (January 8, 2001): Amphion Semiconductor, Inc. (formerly known as Integrated Silicon Systems) today announced the availability of the industry?s most comprehensive and highly integrated virtual component (IP core) solutions for MPEG-2 Video decoding. The Amphion CS6650 application specific virtual component (ASVC) is capable of real-time decompression of MPEG-2 (and MPEG-1) video streams widely used in a diverse range of consumer electronics and digital video broadcast products, such as DVD players, satellite, terrestrial and cable set-top boxes, and PC graphics hardware accelerators. The CS6650 implements standalone decoding of video streams and also supports all MPEG-2 profiles through to 4:2:2@HL, making it ideal for the nascent high-definition video market. The CS6650 ASVC is fully compliant with international standard ISO/IEC 13818-2.

?MPEG-2 is the video compression technology behind the phenomenal world-wide success of DVD, set-top boxes and the rapidly growing class of personal video recorder products.? said Jordan Selburn, Amphion?s Director of Product Marketing. ?The CS6650 core takes up only 1.3 mm2 of system-on-a-chip area and is ideally suited for today?s consumer electronics applications. Amphion?s MPEG-2 technology also addresses the needs of the future, enabling these and other similar applications to quickly and easily migrate to HDTV over the next few years.?

The Amphion CS6550 is unique in that it supports direct (?glueless?) connection to external SDRAM memory ICs- helping to greatly ease system design and lower system build costs. Integration of the memory controller with the CS6550 also avoids on-chip bus performance bottleneck issues typically found in other IP core solutions and which can hinder high-definition video processing.

?Using Amphion?s off-the-shelf MPEG-2 Video Decoder core, digital TV systems developers can avoid the need to re-design what is usually delivered as an application-specific standard product. Think of an ASVC as an on-chip ASSP.? said Stephen Farson, Vice President of Engineering for Amphion. "With integrated system functions such as the SDRAM controller, the CS6650 will help insure that end products get to market faster."

Working in conjunction with other cores, such as Amphion?s CS3000 Channel Coding ASVCs, the CS6650 forms the heart of IP-based SoC platforms for next-generation high definition video systems.
 

About Amphion[tm]
Amphion is the leading supplier of application-specific virtual components (ASVCs) for multimedia and communications System-on-a-Chip (SoC) integrated circuits. Amphion delivers video/image compression, speech/voice coding, and channel coding solutions for consumer and communications applications. Using proprietary techniques for direct-mapped implementations of digital signal processing functions and algorithms in hardware, Amphion develops and licenses IP cores that realize 10X to 1000X improvements in performance compared to conventional implementations using software-programmable DSP processors. Amphion is a privately-held company with corporate headquarters in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK and worldwide sales and marketing operations in San Jose, California. For more information, visit the Amphion website at http://www.Amphion.com

About the Amphion Name
Until year-end 2000, Amphion was known as Integrated Silicon Systems Ltd, or ISS. The change of corporate identity represents the company?s commitment to providing innovative signal processing solutions aimed at rapidly growing markets such as wireless, broadband and Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP). Over the last 18 months, ISS has rapidly rolled out a broad range of application specific virtual components (ASVCs) designed to be the cornerstones of advanced convergence products. The name Amphion is taken from Greek mythology: Amphion, a son of Zeus, built walls around the city of Thebes using his lyre to charm blocks of stone into alignment. Amphion?s business is providing speech, video and data processing ASVCs - the key building blocks in System-on-a-Chip designs. Available off-the-shelf, ASVCs are a major contributor to speeding the design and development processes for customers implementing applications in SoC, ASIC and FPGA.

Notes to Editors:
Amphion, The Amphion logo, ?Virtual Components for the Converging World?, Optima and Celerity are trademarks of Amphion Semiconductor Ltd. All other brand names or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
 

Contacts:

David Mann, Amphion
UK: +44 28 9050 4040
dmann@amphion.com

Jordan Selburn, Amphion
USA: (408) 441-1248
jselburn@amphion.com