The Ambarella Story
Ambarella is a technology leader in low-power, high-definition video compression and image processing solutions.
Ambarella products are helping to define a new class of hybrid digital cameras that bring consumers unmatched high-definition video and digital still images together in a single device. Many cameras and camcorders from top brands have been shipping worldwide using Ambarella SoCs.
Ambarella technology is also widely used in television broadcasting and a large amount of TV programming worldwide is transmitted using Ambarella compression chips.
Additionally, Ambarella SoCs are well suited to drive the latest generation of high-definition security IP cameras and volume production shipments have been deployed world-wide.
Ambarella was founded in 2004 by a group of industry veterans with extensive experience building video processing and encoding semiconductors. The group's mission was to deliver technology that enables capture of pristine high-definition (HD) video at exceptionally low bitrates with a device that consumes minimal power.
To realize this vision an architecture was crafted that could be used across multiple platforms to attack multiple markets. The result was a synergistic circle where the requirements from one market could be applied as advantages to another.
The founders' long history working with broadcast infrastructure equipment makers offered insight into what was needed to build the right technology to take advantage of the move from legacy MPEG-2 encoding technology to next generation H.264 encoding technology.
The team's consumer electronics background was essential to the understanding that only volume sales could sustain utilization of the latest silicon manufacturing process. The founders also understood well the need for a high quality local work force to support production houses in their local domains.
The security IP camera solutions flowed naturally from the requirements of both the broadcast and consumer space. Efficient compression, exceptional HD video processing, and a low power architecture was paired with a feature rich security-centric SDK and these solutions rapidly gained world wide acceptance.
Milestones
| 2004 | • Ambarella founded |
| 2005 | • A1 introduced, world’s first single-chip H.264 HD broadcast-class encoder |
| 2006 | • First Ambarella enabled consumer level HD video cameras in mass production |
| 2007 | • A2 introduced and chosen by leading consumer electronics brands |
| 2008 | • A3 introduced, world’s first single-chip HD 1080p60 broadcast-class encoder |
| 2009 | • A5 introduced, world’s first true hybrid camera chip |
| • A6 state-of-the-art broadcast HD encoder and transcoder introduced | |
| • 3D television broadcasts enabled by Ambarella | |
| • World’s first full HD 1080p30 security IP camera solution in mass production | |
| 2010 | • A5s introduced, Ambarella’s first 45nm chip |
| • A7 introduced, world's first 1080p60 HD camera chip | |
| • S3D introduced, world’s first full HD, 3D solution | |
| 2011 | • iOne introduced, a camera applications processor for Android-based devices |
| • A7L introduced, world’s first 32nm 1080p60 DSC SoC |