Mtekvision to spin off Canadian IC unit

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA: South Korean fabless chip maker MtekVision, the largest in the country, has decided to spin off its Canadian IC design unit as part of a new strategy.

The move will give shape to a new entity by the name of CogniVue Corp and will be based in Gatineau, Quebec.

When it used to be part of MtekVision, CogniVue had got into three generations of Maple multimedia processors, namely Maple-2, Maple-3 and Maple-3X. It had deployed the technologies such as Apex DSP Sub-System, a next-generation IP core technology for video and image processing.

The company website stated that the Apex system offers more power and speed compared with traditional DSP. It adds that traditional DSP increases the operating clock and adds parallelism by minimally increasing the number of parallel multiply-accumulate (MAC) units.

MtekVision, which is into programmable image cognition processors (ICPs), is also involved in developing multimedia processors for mobile phones and related products. The company is now expected to continue to develop those products, but it will also enter the application processor market.

With regard to the programmable image cognition processors, a company official said they are ARM-based devices that enable real-time embedded image and video analytics applications in automotive smart cameras, Internet Protocol (IP) video surveillance, and mobile consumer devices.