New PowerVR video IP family from Imagination combines highest quality H.265/H.264 encoding with optimized low latency streaming

IP cores based on flexible Series5 encoder architecture address a wide range of applications including IoT, wearables, ADAS, mobile devices and cameras

MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS, Barcelona, Spain – 2^nd March, 2015 – Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) announces a new PowerVR High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) IP family designed to provide the highest quality H.265 encoding, while optimizing silicon area and bandwidth usage. This multi standard encoder also offers high-quality H.264 encoding for compatibility with the huge range of AVC (Advanced Video Coding) decoders available today.

PowerVR Series5 video encoders are ideal for applications requiring a flexible encoder able to offer a choice of resolution and bitrate support at the highest quality, covering markets from 720p @ 30fps to 4K @ 60fps and beyond. The first three IP cores in the new series include encoders optimized for high-efficiency mass market, high-performance mainstream mobile and ultra-high definition (UHD) content creation.

HEVC/H.265 video compression technology is designed to deliver video quality comparable to content encoded in the current AVC/H.264 standard, at approximately half the bitrate – critical for transmission of HD and UHD video content over today’s limited bandwidth connections.

The new Series5 encoders are designed to deliver all the key benefits of HEVC in terms of quality and bitrate reduction relative to H264. In addition, the architecture features advanced search algorithms, a full toolset implementation and optimized rate control algorithms which enable the PowerVR solution to require typically 30% fewer bits than competing solutions to achieve the same quality. The new encoders are capable of high frame rate encoding up to 1080p @ 240fps, enabling faster than real-time transcoding, slow motion recording and multi-stream encoding. The flexibility of the new encoders can translate to numerous application-specific benefits:

• Save costs with the ability to record and store more video content in less memory space
• Reduce upload bandwidth and power required to access cloud video hosting services
• Deliver the highest possible quality for prosumer video and entry-level broadcast recording
• Minimize the required transmission bandwidth for video conferencing/streaming on a mobile device
• Enable high-quality, low-latency mirroring for video games on a TV from a mobile device or tablet in real time
• Ensure the low latency needed for safety critical applications like advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS)

Says Chris Longstaff, director of business development, Imagination: “The emerging demand for 4K video drives the need for a fully-featured H.265 encoder along with a low-energy streaming architecture to achieve the required bitrates and power profile. Imagination’s new PowerVR video encoders deliver on these requirements and will be at the heart of many next-generation devices where ultra-high definition video content is a must.”

Since HEVC will be used for a wide range of applications, Imagination is offering a corresponding range of targeted encoder cores, all of which support Android, Linux and RTOS:

• PowerVR E5800: This prosumer-level encoder is designed to enable 4K @ 60fps, and features enhanced color depth with10 bits of precision, enabling video stream compliance with ITU-R rec BT.2020
• PowerVR E5505: This high-performance encoder is targeted at products including tablets, mobile phones, home media gateways and security cameras; it is designed to enable 4K @ 30fps
• PowerVR E5300: This area- and power-optimized encoder is ideal for wearables, camera-equipped IoT devices, entry-level mobile devices and automotive applications such as ADAS, and is designed to enable 1080p @ 60fps

Series5 encoders have unique features that lead to even lower latency, lower power, lower bandwidth encoding compared with other solutions. This includes ultra-low latency modes that enable sub-frame delays, and a direct input/output option that removes the need to access system memory at either the input from the camera pipeline, or before transmission over the network.

To help customers get to market quickly with lower risk and lower cost, Imagination is ensuring advanced, comprehensive software support for the new encoders including full driver support for Linux and Android. Multiple flexible rate control options are provided. RTOS support is also available.

Part of the integrated PowerVR Multimedia IP portfolio

Imagination’s family of PowerVR Series5 encoders and decoders form a key part of Imagination’s comprehensive portfolio of PowerVR multimedia IP, which also includes PowerVR Rogue GPUs and PowerVR Raptor imaging processors (camera ISPs).

While each core in the PowerVR family is designed to work with any bus fabric, processor or other IP, Imagination has created optimizations between all PowerVR multimedia cores to maximize system performance while minimizing power, silicon area and memory bandwidth. For example, close coupling between the encoders and the camera ISP reduces memory traffic and enables better allocation of bitrate to produce superior image quality for a given bitrate. In addition, datapath optimizations between the GPU, video encoder and camera ISP lay the foundation for a highly efficient PowerVR based Vision IP Platform for next-generation applications such as IoT sensors, ADAS, surveillance and augmented reality.

Availability

PowerVR Series5 video encoders are available now for licensing. For more information, contact info@imgtec.com.

About Imagination Technologies

Imagination is a global technology leader whose products touch the lives of billions of people across the globe. The company’s broad range of silicon IP (intellectual property) includes the key processing blocks needed to create the SoCs (Systems on Chips) that power all mobile, consumer and embedded electronics. Its unique software IP, infrastructure technologies and system solutions enable its customers get to market quickly with complete and highly differentiated SoC platforms. Imagination’s licensees include many of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers, network operators and OEMs/ODMs who are creating some of the world’s most iconic products. See: www.imgtec.com.