From Projectors to Smartphones, GEO’s EWarp ICs to Debut in iPhone Skin Next Month
LAS VEGAS -- The future of video processing is in programmability, Geo Semiconductor CEO Paul Russo told us at the Insight Media Projection Summit. A discrete device that can handle HD 1080p would have difficulty handling 2K or 4K signals, he said. A programmable device allows designers to define in software whether a video signal is going to an HD, a 2K or a 4K projector, he said.
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Flexibility was the idea behind the Realta video processor technology, developed originally by Lockheed Martin for real-time video search in military applications. Lockheed then spun off the Realta’s developer to a company called Teranex, which worked with Hollywood to create the Realta chip that can do a trillion operations per second for real-time HD processing in software. Silicon Optix acquired Teranex to create the Realta chip, Russo said, and Geo later acquired the assets of Silicon Optix.
Realta and Geo’s up-and-coming eWarp are separate chips currently with Realta handling video processing and eWarp doing geometric processing, but the company is “mixing and matching IP to get the right pieces of each technology into future chips” as a cost-efficient means to combine processes of the two chips for volume customers, Russo said. Having a single programmable chip will enable the company to accommodate multiple markets, he said.
Geo is still in the projector business because “it’s in our DNA,” Russo said, “but if you're a chip company selling $10 components you need very high-volume markets.” Geo’s eWarp chip is used in 3D, keystone correction, short-throw lenses, surveillance cameras, smartphone peripherals, in specialized applications such as “unwarping a fisheye video stream” and automotive cameras, he said. Programmable video processing hasn’t been widespread to date “because it’s hard,” Russo said, calculating that $150 million has been spent on Realta technology over 15 years. “In today’s world, you could never have anyone fund that,” he said.
EWarp will hit volume levels next month when AppBanc releases at the end of July an iPhone skin and app featuring eWarp IP inside, Russo said. The skin packs multiple lenses arranged in a carousel for the smartphone, allowing users to switch between lenses for still pictures. The eWarp chip, including eWarp software, boosts image processing, Russo said. An HD video version is due early 2013 that incorporates the Gen 4 eWarp chip currently in development, he said.
Silicon Optix won an engineering Emmy Award for the Realta chip in 2007 due to its programmability, Russo said. “If Hollywood says it doesn’t want this chip, you just change the code.” Denon’s high-end Blu-ray players still incorporate the Realta chip, he noted, but Geo is looking away from specialty AV and toward the automotive market where future cars will be outfitted with fish-eye and 360-degree views cameras that require geometric processing. Geo’s focus is on eWarp chips now, but the company will add video processing blocks from Realta IP “as needed” for uses such as noise reduction, he said.
Geo will license Realta technology to other companies, “but we don’t want to re-enter the TV business because it’s a commodity business,” Russo said. Using an under-40-nanometer process, the solution is “cheaper than a hard-wired process “with all the benefits,” he said. “Some big guys are evaluating it,” he said, “but I probably shouldn’t say who.”
Geo announced Tuesday it had secured $3 million in debt financing, which will enable the company to complete development of the Gen 4 eWarp processor. The financing converts into Series B equity when an unspecified threshold is achieved, the company said. Geo is completing $7 million-plus of Series B funding and signing additional strategic partners, it said.