SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 31, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MIPS Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:MIPS), a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital home, networking and mobile applications, announced that dozens of the world's leading electronics companies introduced and demonstrated devices and technologies based on the popular MIPS® architecture at the recent International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The breadth of MIPS-Based™ products at the show demonstrated MIPS' strength in the digital home and networking markets and the company's growing presence in mobile.
Highlights included the world's first Android™ 4.0 'Ice Cream Sandwich' tablet and demonstrations of Android 4.0 on multiple MIPS-Based platforms for the digital home, as well as numerous other MIPS-Based smartphones, tablets, digital cameras, HDTVs, set-top boxes, over-the-top media players, and a wide range of other home entertainment and networking products.
"With the strength of the MIPS architecture in the digital home and networking markets, it is no surprise that MIPS-Based products are pervasive at the world's largest consumer technology tradeshow. As MIPS continues to gain traction in the mobile market, we are starting to see more tablets, smartphones and e-readers as well. The scalability and performance efficiency of the MIPS architecture make it ideal for a broad range of products, from entry-level handsets to Android 4.0 tablets, connected HDTVs, home networking products and equipment for mobile and communications infrastructure," said Gideon Intrater, vice president of marketing, MIPS Technologies.
MIPS-Based Mobile and Portable Products
In its suite at the show, MIPS Technologies highlighted the world's first Android 4.0 tablets, initially announced on December 5, 2011, which are available in China and online for less than $100 (U.S.). The tablets are powered by Ingenic Semiconductor's JZ4770 mobile applications processor, which leverages a MIPS-Based XBurst™ CPU running at 1GHz. Apps and games that are optimized for the MIPS-Based tablets include the video game Spider-Man: Total Mayhem from Gameloft, which is embedded on the devices.
Other mobile products on display in MIPS' suite included numerous brands of mobile handsets offered by companies including Lenovo, TCL Corp. and others, with service provided by carriers including China Telecom and China Mobile. In addition, MIPS highlighted a $35 Android 2.2 mobile internet device from Gemei with a MIPS-Based chipset from Actions Semiconductor that includes games, social media and apps for the China market. Also on display were MIPS-Based e-readers including the QuokkaPad from Ubiq Technologies, the Bambook and the Hanvon e-reader.
AMIMON and Lenovo demonstrated a version of the Lenovo IdeaPad tablet that integrates AMIMON's MIPS-Based chips with Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) technology, enabling wireless transmission of content to any TV. The embedded WHDI solution can provide easy set up and sharing of content from the IdeaPad to a large screen TV, with no need for cables or external adaptors.
MIPS-Based digital cameras and camcorders from some of the world's leading camera manufacturers were also showcased throughout CES, including those from Kodak, Samsung, Nikon, Kodak, Pentax, Olympus, Sony and Aiptek.
Integration of Mobile Devices in the Digital Home
Multiple demonstrations showed the integration of mobile devices and digital home devices. With TransGaming, MIPS demonstrated real-time, multi-screen gaming. The companies showed GameTree™ TV, a premier on-demand video game platform for smart TV on a MIPS-Based set-top box (STB) platform, integrated with a MIPS-Based Android tablet acting as a secondary screen and game play interface. In addition, MIPS demonstrated PacketVideo's award-winning Twonky suite of products on MIPS-Based home and mobile devices, showing seamless delivery of content and access to online services across multiple screens.
Advanced Communications Co., Ltd. (ADCOM) showed a new MIPS-Based streaming media player that plugs directly into a TV's HDMI port, pushing Internet-based HD video to the TV over Wi-Fi, essentially making any HDMI-enabled TV a "smart" TV. Integration also enables users to search for content on their smartphones and display the results on the TV.
Togic Software's TVOS solution for Android "smart" TV enables consumers to view a broad array of Internet content, broadcast programming, personal media, and applications, on a single TV screen. The solution was demonstrated on a MIPS-Based set-top box platform, with a MIPS-Based Android 4.0 tablet acting as the remote control interface.
Mobileye demonstrated "smartphone" assisted driver safety with its new Mobileye 5-Series product, which assists drivers by identifying dangerous situations on the roads and providing audio-visual warnings to prevent or mitigate a collision. With the Mobileye 5-Series, alerts can now be displayed on a smartphone, allowing drivers to stay in control and be more aware of the road. Mobileye uses MIPS' multi-threaded cores in its collision avoidance systems, which are used in vehicles from manufacturers including Volvo and BMW, and will soon be offered in vehicles from luxury RV manufacturer Entegra Coach.
MIPS in the Digital Living Room
MIPS demonstrated Android 4.0 'Ice Cream Sandwich' for the digital home on two licensees' platforms, including SoCs for DTVs and set-top boxes. Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) demonstrated a custom Android 4.0 user interface for DTV with live TV and numerous apps on its smart TV platform, which supports high-end graphics, enhanced video processing and video-on-demand recording, as well as customized widgets and support for popular services such as YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, weather and finance, as well as online video rental services.
MIPS also demonstrated various popular gaming and software platforms on digital home SoCs from multiple licensees. This included Opera TV from Opera Software, which brings both HTML5 and WebGL applications to the TV. Demonstrations on Opera TV included web applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, and several advanced 3D games. MIPS also demonstrated the Antix Game Player (AGP) from Antix Labs, as well as high-definition Skype running on a MIPS-Based set-top box.
Cisco announced at CES that the Cisco Videoscape™ will help enable new "video in the cloud" services to drive new revenue streams for service providers, and new video entertainment for consumers. Utilizing MIPS processor technology, the Cisco Videoscape 9800 Series multiscreen gateway product features six tuners that allow consumers to watch and record six video streams at once. It delivers live, recorded and on-demand content – including standard, high-definition and 3DTV – to multiple screens within the home. Cisco also announced that several major video service providers, including Rogers Communications of Canada, YES of Israel and Numericable of France, have selected Videoscape to deliver next-generation video services.
COBY demonstrated HDTVs leveraging MIPS processors. COBY's full 1080p HDTV with LED backlight delivers vivid color and contrast on a 46" screen with a 120Hz engine to reduce motion blur. The HDTV is also equipped with HDMI for easy high definition video and digital 5.1 surround sound.
DISH introduced a whole-home high-definition DVR entertainment system featuring a MIPS-Based processor. The Hopper™ HD DVR and accompanying Joey™ set-top boxes allow DISH customers to record, pause, and play back shows from any room in the home. Hopper was honored as a CES Innovations 2012 Design and Engineering Award honoree, Popular Mechanics Editors' Choice and a CNET "Best of CES" finalist.
Entropic showcased Pace Plc's HR34 Home Media Center HD-DVR for DIRECTV, using MIPS-Based Entropic silicon and software employing the MoCA® (Multimedia over Coax) standard. The HR34 represents a fully interconnected DVR experience for the satellite industry, including trick play and multi-room viewing for each client device, or RVU-enabled TV.
Entropic also showcased a number of MoCA-to-Wi-Fi Ethernet-to-coax adapters (ECAs) and reference designs based on its MIPS-Based MoCA silicon. With the company's MoCA technology, service providers and device manufacturers can help consumers optimize their whole-home wireless entertainment experiences by delivering higher quality connectivity and performance to tablets and smartphones using multiple MoCA to Wi-Fi access points in the home. Entropic also announced a multi-band Ethernet-to-Coax Adapter (ECA) reference design that works across multiple pay-TV service networks, including cable, satellite, and telcos, by automatically detecting, configuring and joining an in-home MoCA network to deliver fast entertainment networking speeds.
Entropic displayed a wide array of products using their MIPS-Based MoCA technology, including those from Motorola, NETGEAR, Actiontec, Cisco, ZTE, SMC/Comcast WNC, Technetix, Samsung, DIRECTV, Humax, Channel Master, EchoStar, D-Link, ACEEX, GD Link, Changhong, Incoax, Yitong Technology, JebSee, Ginentek, Prime and Zinwell.
DUNE HD introduced and demonstrated two products utilizing Sigma Designs' MIPS-Based SMP8670 media processor. Dune HD TV-301 and Dune HD TV-101 are compact universal media players that allow video playback of standard and high-definition network-based and internet-delivered content up to full HD (1080p), and may also be used as specialized set-top boxes for IPTV, OTT and VOD entertainment service operators. The TV series features compact size, modest price, elegant design and a high-performance feature-set including full media player functionality.
Hisense demonstrated the MIPS-Based Smart XT710 TV which offers popular TV functions as well as other smart TV features, such as web surfing, popular games, access to Android applications, 3D gesture controlled games, and streaming videos and movies. Hisense Smart TV preloads HiTV-OS, which is compatible with Android OS. In selected geographic markets, additional applications can be downloaded from the Hisense App Store, allowing further personalization of the TV experience.
Sigma Designs introduced a home video conferencing platform that combines home conferencing solutions with video streaming in a set-top box design. The platform includes a console, remote, and HD camera, and combines Sigma's PL330 video encoder technology with its MIPS-Based SMP8670 secure media processor technology.
Sigma Designs also announced a joint Wi-Fi Display / DLNA IPTV reference design with Qualcomm Atheros Inc. The new platform combines Qualcomm Atheros' 2x2 dual band 802.11n solutions like the MIPS-Based AR9342 with Sigma's integrated MIPS-Based SMP8670 secure media processor to deliver wireless connectivity directly from a Wi-Fi Display or DLNA-enabled notebook or mobile device to a set-top box.
Sigma Designs disclosed a unique set-top box reference design with Quantenna Communications' high performance 802.11n 4x4 MIMO technology that enables Sigma's SoC to receive video wirelessly and meet strict requirements for quality, robustness and reliability. The new platform combines Quantenna's 802.11n QHS710 solution with Sigma's highly-integrated MIPS-Based SMP8652 connected media platform technology.
Simple.TV announced that it has partnered with Buffalo Inc. to launch what they called "the first DVR designed for the connected TV world". Bringing live and recorded TV to connected devices both inside and outside the home, the Simple.TV DVR turns the iPad, Roku box, Google TV, or web browser into a full-featured DVR. At the heart of the Simple.TV DVR is the MIPS-Based ViXS XCode® 4210 that enables the Simple.TV DVR to convert broadcast television into highly compressed and flexible video streams that can be accessed by popular consumer electronics devices. Separately, ViXS demonstrated MIPS-Based Blu-ray players/recorders with full set-top box functionality, as well as multi-tuner advanced digital set-top boxes.
Sling Media Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corp., and Broadcom Corp. demonstrated integration of the Sling Media Software Development Kit (SDK) into Broadcom's latest set-top box SoC platforms. The collaboration paves the way for manufacturers of set-top boxes and consumer electronic devices to give consumers the ability to watch television content wherever they want, on the connected device of their choice.
TiVo Inc. demonstrated its complete product line: TiVo® Premiere, TiVo Premiere XL and TiVo Premiere Elite DVRs– all of which utilize MIPS-Based processors. TiVo Premiere DVR is billed as "the world's first smart DVR". It brings entertainment from cable and the web together in one place, with Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, YouTube, Pandora and more. The latest in processor technology has enabled a smaller, more powerful and more energy-efficient device. TiVo Premiere Elite DVR includes four tuners so users can record up to four shows simultaneously.
Yahoo! demonstrated Yahoo Connected TV on a MIPS-Based digital home platform at CES. Yahoo Connected TV delivers real-time Internet content and interactive TV experiences including a collection of more than 180 easy-to-use TV apps, designed to complement TV viewing. TV apps run the gamut from news, entertainment, finance, sports, games, social networking, music, photo sharing, shopping, and more. Yahoo!'s new broadcast interactivity feature provides interactive TV experiences for consumers and TV advertisers. Yahoo Connected TV is available across leading TV brands worldwide including Sony®, Samsung®, VIZIO®, Toshiba®, Haier and Hisense.
ZTE demonstrated MIPS-Based products at CES including the ZXV10 B700, an IPTV set-top box that offers a H.264 HD video processor, and rich services such as LiveTV, video-on-demand, TVOD, TSTV and web browsing.
Networking, Storage and Enterprise
In its suite at the show, MIPS highlighted several products for mobile network infrastructure including femtocells from Tecom, Askey and Ubiquisys/Sercomm. In addition, MIPS showed a mPCIe Module for dual-band LTE, the AVM Fritz!Box LTE - WiFi / LTE router, an IPWireless triple-band USB dongle and AsiaTelco ALT-K169 dual-band TD-LTE USB dongle. These products feature chips from MIPS licensees including Altair Semiconductor.
Altair Semiconductor showed a range of networking equipment leveraging its MIPS-Based processors including LTE dongles and routers that are deployed around the world by companies including China Mobile, Polsat Networks and Vodafone/O2. Altair Semiconductor also announced general availability of the Open-Platform™ Embedded Linux Software Development Kit (SDK) for its MIPS-Based FourGee-3100/6200 chipset. The SDK enables designers to implement a wide variety of applications and functions on a chip, including support for FDD in any 3GPP frequency band between 700 and 2700MHz, and is targeted for applications such as indoor/outdoor customer premises equipment (CPE), hostless USB dongles, portable LTE/WiFi routers and M2M (Machine to Machine) modules.
Altair Semiconductor and Ecrio demonstrated an IP Multimedia Subsystem ("IMS") compliant LTE reference platform based on Altair's MIPS-Based FourGee™ LTE chipset and Ecrio's Mobile Communications Client Suite. A key functionality of signaling and messaging over LTE, IMS is now being used by mobile operators in the United States to enable commercial LTE services. Through the partnership, the companies aim to offer customers a turnkey, operator certified LTE/IMS platform, shortening time-to-market and lowering R&D cost.
Also on display was Deutsche Telekom's flagship communications hub for in-home broadband services, which is powered by MIPS-Based silicon from Lantiq. The Speedport W 921V Broadband router aims to meet all communication needs of consumer households with a single box, providing a platform to deliver multimedia data and broadband services to practically any point in the home. The Speedport W 921V leverages Lantiq chips for all major functions including DSL, network processor, Gigabit Ethernet, 2.4 and 5G WLAN, DECT/CAT-iq™, voice, and ISDN. MIPS also showed a demonstration of a services gateway for next-generation video delivery, home monitoring and service enablement via an OSGI framework, based on a Lantiq xDSL SoC powered by a multi-threaded MIPS32® 34K® core.
Belkin unveiled its wireless networking solution designed to deliver maximum speed, range and performance, the Advance N900 DB Wireless Dual-Band N+ Router. With Belkin's MultiBeam technology, the N900 creates a network to support an entire household of Wi-Fi devices and media-intensive activities such as online gaming and 3D video streaming. A 600MHz MIPS processor enables high-bandwidth multitasking across all devices on the network. Belkin also demonstrated the MIPS-Based ScreenCast AV4 Wireless AV-to-HDTV Adapter, which enables consumers to wirelessly connect to their HDTV four HMDI AV devices, a Blu-ray™ player, gaming consoles and other home theater equipment, with no need for a professional installer, and no need to run cables through walls.
MediaTek Inc. announced its latest innovation for 802.11ac Wi-Fi AP/routers—the RT6856 Wi-Fi SoC, which allows users to simultaneously create two wireless networks, both running at full bandwidth. The RT6856 Wi-Fi SoC contains a multi-threaded 700MHz MIPS32® 34KEc™ CPU core and two PCI Express interfaces to enable interoperability with 802.11ac Wi-Fi chips for true Gigabit wireless in dual-band concurrent home networks for high-quality data, voice and video applications.
Entropic and Qualcomm Atheros announced a collaboration to deliver home networking solutions and products based on the recently approved IEEE P1905.1 Draft Standard for Convergent Digital Home Networks, which provides a single protocol for unifying networks based on Ethernet, MoCA, Wi-Fi and HomePlug Powerline. The companies are unveiling a joint reference design that enables service providers and consumer electronics OEMs and original device manufacturers (ODMs) to build home networking products that improve whole-home coverage by using the MoCA network to extend the range of Wi-Fi.
Wi3's WiPNET, using Entropic's MIPS-Based MoCA technology, was recognized as a CES 2012 Innovations Honoree. WiPNET transmits data at speeds up to 175Mbps using untapped bandwidth available in existing coaxial cabling, layering Ethernet signals above or below TV signals.
ZTE demonstrated several MIPS-Based gateways and modems including the ZXHN H368N, a high-performance triple-play home gateway supporting VDSL and Gigabit Ethernet uplink modes, ADSL/ADSL2/ADSL2+/VDSL2 functions, and 2-pair xDSL bonding function with up to 60Mbps uplink and 100Mbps downlink data rates.
About MIPS Technologies, Inc.
MIPS Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:MIPS) is a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital home, networking and mobile applications. The MIPS architecture powers some of the world's most popular products, including broadband devices from Linksys, DTVs and digital consumer devices from Sony, DVD recordable devices from Pioneer, digital set-top boxes from Motorola, network routers from Cisco, 32-bit microcontrollers from Microchip Technology and laser printers from Hewlett-Packard. Founded in 1998, MIPS Technologies is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with offices worldwide. For more information, contact (408) 530-5000 or visit www.mips.com.
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