- ST's code contribution to the WiPlay Frog ecosystem provides broadcasters with the benefit of faster market launch for new converged services.

September 22, 2014, Seoul – STMicroelectronics (ST), a global semiconductor company contributing to customers across various electronic applications, and Wyplay, a software solution developer for major Pay-TV operators, announced that 'Bull Frog,' version 2.0 of Wyplay's middleware for set-top boxes, is supported on ST's ARM®-based SoC products, specifically the Cannes and Monaco families. They also announced plans to extend support to the entire ARM/HEVC product family, including the Liege2 (STiH301) and the latest UHDp60 family, the STiH314/318/414/418.

This announcement demonstrates that the collaboration between the two companies has produced successful results, and the provision of a significant amount of code by ST Software's R&D team also contributed to making this announcement possible. The code provided by ST to Frog's codebase is shared with a community of over 60 licensed companies. This continuously growing community includes chip manufacturers, independent software companies, software service providers, and broadcasters. ST provided SDK2, its Linux-based set-top box software, along with code for adapting Prog middleware to specific hardware, API extensions, and optimizing the rendering of HTML5 applications.

This contribution by ST is a prime example of Frog's collaborative nature, which involves sharing a pre-integrated and verified ecosystem of UI, middleware, drivers, OS, and hardware. With this level of integration and functional connectivity, it is possible to accelerate the launch of convergence services, such as online video services (Over-The-Top services) provided by pay TV broadcasters.

Herve Mathieu, Executive Director of Box and Gateway Business at ST’s Integrated Platform Division, said, “The partnership between ST and WiPlay will provide strategic benefits to customers. Set-top box developers and broadcasters can bring products to market quickly by integrating Frog into ST’s ARM-based set-top box and server reference designs, and also enjoy economic benefits by using common middleware across the entire product family.”

Jacques Bourgninaud, CEO of WiPlay, stated, “By taking an interest in the open ecosystem and making a significant contribution to the Frog ecosystem, ST has proven that it is an innovative leader in the industry, not only in technology but also in strategy,” adding, “Thanks to Frog’s flexible licensing structure, all members of the Frog community can utilize WiPlay’s middleware across all ST products.”

With this collaboration, the two companies are establishing an ambitious roadmap to incorporate advanced features such as 4K user interfaces, transcoding, and multi-screen capabilities, which are supported on ST’s set-top box and server processors, into the Frog ecosystem.

ST's Cannes and Monaco SoC architectures consist of an ARM multicore CPU, a GPU processor, an HEVC video decoder, a high-performance video encoder, and a Faroudja® multimedia subsystem responsible for high-quality video pre/post-processing. The entire system supports an advanced security subsystem compliant with the latest CAS/DRM (Conditional Access System/Digital Rights Management) standards to protect broadcasters' assets and premium content. The Cannes and Monaco SoC families provide PCIe™ with Wi-Fi connectivity, smart card interfaces, Gen 3 eSATA interfaces with 6 Gbit/s, USB2/3, SPI, I2C, SDIO, and DDR memory interfaces to enable flexible and cost-effective hardware design. By supporting active standby mode, both chipset families enable the implementation of form factor solutions requiring low power consumption.

More detailed information can be found on ST's Connected-Client Processors page.

The full source code and technical documentation of Frog middleware are provided to Frog community licensees through the portal (http://portal.frogbywyplay.com).