Sanyo licenses Hantro MPEG-4 core for PDA device

Sanyo licenses Hantro MPEG-4 core for PDA device
By Peter Clarke, EE Times
September 20, 2001 (4:11 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20010920S0063

LONDON — Sanyo Semiconductor Co. (Tokyo) has agreed to license an MPEG-4 video codec core from Hantro Products Ltd. Sanyo will use the core in chips for a handheld personal digital assistant (PDA) now in development in Japan.

"In this early phase of mobile video, the PDA market is very interesting as there are good displays and other facilities available for video applications," said Eero Kaikkonen, chief executive officer and president of Hantro, based in Oulu, Finland. "We see PDAs as a natural step in the evolution of video applications. Wireless video will first be implemented in PDAs before it can be utilized by midrange mobile phones. This revenue-generating deal with up-front license fee and royalties justifies that we are on the right track in our business model development."

"Sanyo and our customers have lofty demands for high resolution and picture quality, but Hantro's technology and prototyp es convinced us that those demands are accessible," said Toru Watanabe of Sanyo Semiconductor. "Hantro's road map gives us a good position in offering not only a one-time solution to our customers, but a solution with the aspect to the future of wireless video also."

Hantro's MPEG-4 codec has been designed as a system-on-chip solution for wireless handsets and with low power consumption and low processor loading in mind, the company said.