Pixelworks, Inc., a leading provider of system-on-chip ICs for the advanced display industry, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Equator Technologies, Inc., a privately held fabless semiconductor company. Founded in 1996 and based in Campbell, Calif., Equator is a leading provider of programmable digital video and audio encoding and decoding solutions with its family of Broadband Signal Processor, or BSP(TM), ICs.

Equator Technologies is at the forefront of delivering programmable advanced video compression technology with customer-proven system-on-chip IC and software solutions that are key to unlocking broadband networks for video entertainment and communications. Equator's programmable architecture leads the industry in supporting multiple digital video formats and offers maximum flexibility and upgradeability as video standards continue to evolve with advanced compression technology or digital rights management schemes. Currently, Equator's programmable system-on-chip (SOC) solution supports a number of encode/decode, or codec, technologies including:

• Microsoft Windows Media 9 Series including SMPTE VC-1 encode and decode;
• MPEG-2 encode and decode;
• MPEG-4 encode and decode;
• H.264, also known as MPEG-4 AVC, encode and decode;
• Real Media Player decode;
• H.263 and H.323 video conferencing encode and decode;
• DivX encode and decode; and
• ON2 encode and decode.

In addition, Equator has shipped the digital rights management, or DRM, solutions for Microsoft Windows Media DRM 10 and SecureMedia Encryponite DRM.