Rockchip, WebM release RK29xx -- world's first SoC to support WebM HD video playback in hardware

CES 2011, LAS VEGAS, USA: Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics Co. Ltd, a leading developer of fabless semiconductors, released its new RK29xx generation mobile Internet platform.

Rockchip 55-nm RK29xx solution is a high-performance, low-power processor designed for mobile internet applications. It integrates an ARM Cortex-A8 CPU includes the NEON SIMD engine to improve software media processing capability. With TSMC advance process, the A8 core can enable up to 1.2GHz.

RK29xx also provides FULL HD decoder and encoder processor, hardware accelerated Adobe Flash Player 10.1, ultra powerful 3D/2D GPU, high speed internet surfing experience and more, now RK29xx supports Gingerbread (Android 2.3).

The RK29xx is the world's first system-on-a-chip (SOC) to support 1080P HD decoding of the VP8 video codec entirely in hardware. VP8 is the codec used in the open WebM video format. To build VP8 decoding into the RK29xx graphics accelerators, Rockchip licensed the WebM project's G-Series 1 video decoder IP design.

"Cooperating with WebM has brought the benefit of Rockchip's years of experience in the audio and video fields," said Chen Feng, Vice Present of Rockchip. "The successful support of VP8 marks China's semiconductor industry becoming international and Rockchip is devoted to continued support."

"We're very excited that Rockchip chose our G-Series 1 hardware design to add VP8 support to the RK29xx," said Jani Huoponen, Hardware Product Manager for the WebM project. "Playback of HD content in hardware is very important to the WebM project and we look forward to seeing deployment of devices powered by the RK29xx."