Argon Streams VP9 Supports New High-Bit Depth Profiles

Argon Design, Inc., a leading supplier of advanced video verification solutions, has released full conformance test bit-streams for the verification of all four profiles used by VP9 video decoders.

Google, Inc. [NASDAQ:GOOG] developed the VP9 video codec standard, to offer higher levels of video compression than previous video codecs such as H.264. This higher performance is particularly important for enabling internet streaming of 4K resolution Ultra HD video content by on-line video services such as YouTube and for building the next generation of real-time communication applications.

Google has recently finalized additional profiles for the VP9 standard, to add support for High Bit Depth with various color sub-sampling. These include:

First announced at the Google VP9 Summit in June 2014, Argon Streams VP9 is a set of test bit-streams that provide full coverage testing and verification of video decoders directly against Google’s VP9 Reference Code. Initial support for profiles 0 and 1 has now been extended to include support for high bit depth VP9 profiles 2 and 3.

WebM Project lead Matt Frost stated, “The compiler based approach used to generate Argon Streams VP9 ensures that the bit-streams provide full coverage of all aspects of the VP9 video standard. Argon Design has also been able to rapidly develop a full conformance set of bit-streams covering all of the VP9 profiles.”

Alan Scott, CEO of Argon Design, adds, “Building on the popularity of Argon Streams for HEVC, we have used the same approach for Argon Streams VP9. This means that we can ensure and demonstrate full coverage verification of the VP9 standard.”

Argon Streams is exclusively sold and supported worldwide by ChipStart LLC, a leading semiconductor intellectual property and design services company based in Palo Alto, California.

About Argon Design Ltd

Argon Design, based in Cambridge, UK, is a high technology consultancy with a successful track record in semiconductor design and embedded product development. With a history of complex IP and ASIC designs, including custom processors, video codecs and 2D/3D graphics engines, Argon Design has developed a video decoder verification solution called Argon Streams. Available for both the HEVC and VP9 standards, Argon Streams meets the demanding verification and test coverage needs of IP and Semiconductor developers.

About ChipStart

ChipStart is a semiconductor intellectual property solution company based in Palo Alto, California. ChipStart provides sales, marketing, and support engagement solutions for companies that commerce third party semiconductor intellectual property, high quality pre-verified subsystem solutions, and support design services for ASIC and fabless semiconductor companies. ChipStart solutions are used as critical components in communications, consumer and computing products including switches, routers, modems, cellular phones, set-top boxes, HDTVs, DVD players and PCs. For more information, see www.chip-start.com.