Allegro DVT, the leading provider of video codec compliance test suites and semiconductor video IPs, today announced the acquisition of Amphion Semiconductor, the Belfast-based developer of video codec semiconductor IP solutions.

The resulting company will operate under the Allegro DVT brand from its existing offices in Grenoble, France and Belfast, Northern Ireland. The acquisition brings together two best-in-class IP providers, combining the capabilities of Allegro DVT’s advanced video codec IPs, together with Amphion’s silicon proven video decoder IPs. It positions Allegro DVT as the first semiconductor IP company to offer commercially available hardware-based, real-time encoder and decoder solutions for the new AV1 video encoding format for SoC implementations, supporting 4K/UHD up to 8K.

Speaking from Grenoble, Nouar Hamze, CEO of Allegro DVT said “We are delighted to announce the acquisition of the Amphion IP and team which will clearly position Allegro DVT as the world’s leading video codec IP provider. More than ever before, the development of efficient hardware-based video solutions requires more investment and skilled resources as a result of the increasing complexity of new and emerging video encoding formats. The complementary product offerings of both companies immediately puts us in prime position to be able to provide a complete portfolio to our customers for their video encoding, decoding and transcoding applications.”

In Belfast, Stephen Farson, CEO of Amphion Semiconductor commented “We are very excited to be joining forces with the Allegro DVT team. We each bring very complementary skillsets and IP to the new combined company and look forward to working together to develop the next generations of video codec solutions. I would like to acknowledge the achievements of the Amphion team over the last few years. What we have managed to develop is remarkable and today’s announcement gives us the scale and resources to move to the next level.Through working together in servicing our shared customers, the Allegro DVT and Amphion teams have already shown not only a similarity in our approaches to video codec design, but an ability to work closely together as separate companies. The combined company will allow us to accelerate and enhance our product development and further elevate the excellence in the solutions we deliver to our customers.”

About Allegro DVT

Allegro DVT is a leading provider of H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC, AVS2, AVS3, VP9 and AV1 solutions, including industry standard compliance test suites, and semiconductor video encoder and decoder hardware (RTL) IPs. Allegro DVT products have been chosen by more than 100 major IC providers, OEMs and broadcasters.

About Amphion Semiconductor 

Amphion Semiconductor is a video codec silicon IP licensing company, providing highly optimized solutions for all mainstream and legacy video codec formats including video decoder solutions at 4Kp60 for AV1, VP9 and H.265/HEVC, though scalable to higher resolutions and frame rates including 8K and 120fps. The company was formed by a team of highly experienced engineers who had worked together for many years on video codec solutions for STB and DTV SoCs.