Argon Streams, from Argon Design, has been named Electronic Product of the Year at this year’s British Engineering Excellence Awards (BEEAs).Argon Streams, from Argon Design, has been named Electronic Product of the Year at this year’s British Engineering Excellence Awards (BEEAs).
As higher display resolutions become more popular, data needs to be compressed so that it can be transmitted at lower bit rates or stored in smaller memory areas.
Looking to meet these requirements, the MPEG video standards body has defined the HEVC codec, while Google and YouTube, looking to stream 4K video over the internet, have defined the VP9 high compression codec.
Because both codecs provide much higher rates of compression than previous codecs, the encoding process is far more complex and the bitstreams generated by the codecs are equally complex. These bitstreams have to be decoded without error in order to display the video as intended.
Argon Streams is a set of encoded video bitstreams that can be used by decoder developers to verify that their products can handle the latest video standards. The product is targeted at semiconductor companies who are designing and manufacturing decoders, but is also of use to IP developers. In both cases, the end products will be used in devices such as smartphones, tablets and internet streaming systems.
Argon Design has now signed 22 licenses for Argon Streams – 14 more than its ‘optimistic’ forecast.
What the Judges said:
“While there might only be a small number of customers for Argon Stream’s product, it is of critical importance, helping them to ensure their chips get to market in a timely fashion, on budget and that they work.”
Pic: Argon Design CTO Steve Barlow, left, and chief executive Alan Scott, centre, receive the Award from Mark Larson, right, vice chairman of category sponsor Digi-Key Electronics
Author
Graham Pitcher
Source: www.newelectronics.co.uk