Renesas Technology announced that it has agreed to license HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) core IP (intellectual property) from Silicon Image. Renesas Technology Corp. is a joint venture between Hitachi, Ltd., and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation.

HDMI has become the standard high speed digital video and audio interface between consumer electronics devices. Th eJapanese company plans to create new semiconductor products that will enable high speed transfer of high definition video data between consumer electronics devices such as HDTVs, DVD players, digital camcorders and set-top boxes.

HDMI is an extension of the DVI digital data transfer standard, which enables transmission of data, including higher quality video and audio content. HDMI allows these signals to be transferred over a single cable with a small connector, simplifying wiring connections. In addition, HDMI includes support for HDCP, an encryption technology for safeguarding copyright material by preventing unauthorised copying.

The copy protection capability is expected to contribute to a steady expansion in the distribution of high-definition video content such as movies. As more and more multimedia devices are now equipped with HDMI connectors, manufacturers of semiconductor devices are seeing a growing demand for semiconductor products supporting HDMI.

Renesas Technology plans to begin introducing HDMI-compliant semiconductor products for high definition video applications such as DVD players and recorders, digital TV sets and digital still cameras in late 2005. The first product will be a digital TV chip incorporating the HDMI receiver, to be sampled in the first quarter of 2006.