Kawasaki Microelectronics Adds MPEG-4 Video and Audio Technology to its ASIC IP Portfolio

Video IP Provides Superior Picture Quality and Low Power Consumption

SAN JOSE, Calif. — February 2, 2004 — Kawasaki Microelectronics, a leader in advanced yet affordable ASICs, announced today that it has added MPEG-4 video coding technology to its ASIC intellectual property (IP) portfolio. Designed using a proprietary MPEG-4 encoding algorithm, this technology provides better picture quality and lower power consumption than competing solutions, making it an ideal solution for SoC applications that require high quality, real-time MPEG-4 coding of video streams.

Kawasaki also announced that it has added MPEG-4 AAC-LC audio codec technology to its ASIC IP portfolio. This technology, implemented using an ARC ARCtangent™-A5 configurable processor, features high code density, thereby minimizing silicon cost. The combination of MPEG-4 video and audio technology gives Kawasaki a complete solution for customers who want to include MPEG-4 support in their SoCs.

"Achieving superior picture quality with real-time MPEG-4 encoding of video streams, especially those with a lot of motion, is a very difficult engineering task", said Kyoichi Kissei, executive vice-president of sales and marketing logistics at Kawasaki Microelectronics. "The encoding algorithm is the key to overcoming this challenge. With its superior algorithm, the MPEG-4 video technology we offer minimizes or eliminates image artifacts, such as blocking noise, color bleed, or motion jerkiness."

About Kawasaki Microelectronics

Kawasaki Microelectronics is the leader in advanced yet affordable ASIC semiconductor technology solutions. The company’s innovative core technologies and world-class design support are used in the consumer electronics, computer, office-automation, networking, wireless, and electronic-storage markets. Deployed worldwide, Kawasaki’s products enable customers to quickly introduce highly competitive solutions. The company is an active participant in industry standards organizations, including the Network Processing Forum (NPF), Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF), PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG), USB Implementers Forum, MPEG Industry Forum (MPEGIF), Mobile Computing Promotion Consortium (MCPC), and the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG). Kawasaki has design centers in Boston, Osaka, San Jose, Taipei, and Tokyo. For more information, contact the company at 408-570-0555, or visit its English-language web site at http://www.klsi.com/, its Japanese-language web site at http://www.k-micro.com/, or e-mail to info@k-micro.com.