ARC Introduces New "Sonic Focus-Ready" Audio/Video Subsystem

SAN JOSE, Calif., and ST. ALBANS, England, April 24, 2008  –  ARC International (LSE: ARK), a leading provider of consumer intellectual property (IP) to OEM and semiconductor companies, today introduced the new ARC® Media 401V Subsystem (AM 401V).  This is the first member in a new family of programmable audio/video subsystems that are Sonic Focus-ready.  Sonic Focus technology enhances the consumer listening experience and restores the realism of the original performance by reducing artifacts caused by compressed audio.  The AM 401V offers a fully integrated yet programmable subsystem that is capable of playing back virtually any audio/video content on portable media devices.  An industry first, it is optimized to popular audio formats such as AAC, MP3, Dolby Digital and video standards such as MPEG-4, Real Video, VC-1 and H.264 while greatly improving sound fidelity.

Integrated Solution Reduces Design Time and Risk

The AM 401V provides an integrated, “out of the box” hardware/software solution.  It is ideal for being designed into system-on-chips (SoCs) targeting consumer electronics devices because it integrates both video and audio decoding into the same subsystem, dramatically reducing development time and risk.  The AM 401V also comes with complete suite of software development and modeling tools to speed time to market.  These include functional and cycle accurate simulations, compilers, debuggers, profilers and operating systems that have been optimized to the AM 401V.

Bill Jackson, ARC’s vice president of marketing, stated, “The AM 401V is another example of how ARC is helping customers be successful in delivering a compelling multimedia experience to consumers.  Because it is an integrated solution that solves a wide set of audio and video challenges, the AM 401V reduces the design and verification effort of complex SoCs.  Also, customers can leverage its programmability and target multiple markets while being assured their product is highly differentiated.”

“Future Proof” Against Changing Multimedia Standards

The AM 401V Subsystem is fully programmable in C language.  SoC designers can easily add support for future codecs after their SoC is fabricated.  Additional processor headroom enables more functions to be included such as pre- and post-processing and host applications, allowing SoC designers to create highly differentiated products.

Low Power Design Extends Battery Life

The ARC Media 401V was created using the VRaptor™ Multicore Architecture, which enables highly efficient processing of multimedia applications using a heterogeneous solution.  Each core within the AM 401V has been optimized to ensure the overall size and power consumption of the final solution is kept to a minimum.  Power usage is further minimized by the ability to have different modes of operation, such as audio-only with the video subsystem in sleep mode to extend battery life. 

Availability

The ARC Media 401V Subsystem now is available for licensing by customers globally.  Contact ARC for more information at info@arc.com.

About ARC International plc

ARC International is a world leading provider of consumer IP to OEM and semiconductor companies globally.  ARC’s award-winning, vertically integrated audio and video solutions enable high quality multimedia content to be captured, shared, and played on a wide range of electronics devices.  ARC’s 140+ customers collectively ship hundreds of millions of ARC-Based™ chips annually in products such as Mobile TVs, Portable Media Players, WiFi-/WiMAX-enabled computers, flash storage, digital cameras, network appliances, and medical and government systems.
ARC International maintains a worldwide presence with corporate and research and development offices in San Jose and Lake Tahoe, Calif., St. Albans, England, and St. Petersburg, Russia.  For more information visit www.ARC.com.  ARC International is listed on the London Stock Exchange as ARC International plc (LSE: ARK).