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Imagination's POWERVR VXD380 multi-standard, HD video decode core is now capable of decoding AVS - the new Chinese video standard - as well as standards such as H.264, VC-1 (WMV 9), DivX, MPEG-4, H.263, MPEG-2, MPEG-1, JPEG.

Imagination claims the VXD380 core manages the variety of standards while using the smallest silicon area and lowest power consumption.

The specialist in system-on-chip intellectual property (SoC IP) announced the support for the Chinese system - which it states has a lower licensing cost and simpler licensing model than some of the alternatives - at CES 2008 in Las Vegas.

"With the addition of AVS support we have a comprehensive family of video decode technologies for all the key world markets," Tony King-Smith, VP marketing, Imagination Technologies

According to Imagination, the VXD380 architecture features a stream processor that analyses the incoming video bit-stream on a frame by frame basis, and reconfigures the low-level hardware modules in the IP core accordingly. This multi-mode hardware approach, the company claims, delivers the reduction in silicon area and power consumption for a configurable solution, "as a large proportion of the processing hardware required is based on similar building blocks for the many video standards supported by the core".

It states that a 90nm 133MHz implementation of the core delivers power consumption of around 45mW for decoding HD video streams using H.264 High Profile, and 30mW for MPEG-2 Main Profile.