Geo ports video streaming technology to Intel chips

NEWS Video and audio streaming company Geo Interactive has formed an agreement with Intel to port its A2 MPEG 4 video decoder technology onto the chip giant's StrongARM processor, which is used in mobile devices. The deal emphasises the growing demand for Internet streaming products,and gives Israel-based Geo's Emblaze technology a significant boost in the streaming technology market. Naftali Shani, chairman of Geo, said in a statement: "Intel's StrongARM products are one of the major platforms for mobile devices in the world. Porting to the StrongARM platform will give the Emblaze technology access to a very large portion of the mobile device market." Dale Vile, senior analyst at Bloor Research, said this could put Geo in the running to become the de facto video standard for mobile devices. He told silicon.com: "This is a significant deal for Geo because Intel is a big brand and one of the key suppliers in a market where there are still many standards that are yet to be resolved." Vile added that the availability of higher bandwidth later this year will drive demand for multimedia products. "With GPRS we will start to see very basic multimedia becoming practical. Video seems to be an implicit part of 3G movement - much of the 3G prototypes have built-in screen for video conferencing and so on," he said. However, Vile added it will be the consumer market driving the demand rather than the corporate market. He said: "If the handset catches on as an entertainment device it's going to be interesting, particularly in the context where you wouldn't have access to other video. Video is likely to be an important driver in consumer take up." StrongARM SA 1110 is already used in a wide range of mobile devices including Orange's video smart phone, Psion's Series 7 and Net Book, Compaq's iPaq pocket PC and Samsung's Any Web Phone.