VP8 Hardware Decoder Version 5 “Eagle” Released

Today we have made available the fifth generation of the silicon-proven G-Series 1 VP8 hardware decoder IP, internally called “Eagle”.

Eagle has the following key figures:

• 1080p 60fps VP8 decoding at 200MHz
• Maximum clock frequency 290 MHz, up by 32% (65 nm LP process, topographical synthesis)
• 357 kgates logic, 52 kB single-port SRAM
• Less than 2 MHz host CPU load

The increased performance levels allow a great multi-channel playback experience suitable e.g. for TV channel preview, multi-party video conferencing and multi-tab YouTube watching. The G-Series 1 decoder has recently secured multiple design wins in leading Smart TV and Set-Top Box SoCs, proving the performance to be at an appropriate level even for the highest-quality content decoding.

The G1 v5 VP8 decoder is available for licensing at no cost to chip manufacturers at the WebM Project’s hardware page. The multi-format version of the IP and support services for the VP8 standalone core are provided by our channel partner Verisilicon.

WebM Project releases a new generation video IP every quarter to allow the semiconductor licensees to always take advantage of the latest technology. In our next decoder release, we are targeting significant performance boost and smaller silicon footprint.


Aki Kuusela is Engineering Manager of the WebM Project hardware team.