Vimicro Corporation (NASDAQ: VIMC), a leading fabless semiconductor company that designs advanced mixed-signal multimedia products and solutions, today announced the launch of its latest PC camera processor, the VC0301PLNV (301V). The new product is a high performance USB 2.0 digital image processor designed to provide a premier Internet video experience for Microsoft Windows Vista users. 301V has received Windows Hardware Quality Lab (WHQL) certification for Windows Vista at the premium level by Microsoft.

With support from the Microsoft-Vimicro Multimedia Technology Center, originally established in 2003 within Vimicro's Beijing headquarters, the 301V is targeted for both attachable PC and embedded notebook camera applications. Vimicro's entire 301 series of processors is known for providing a high-quality images and Vimicro's newest processor, 301V, is no exception. 301V offers full support over USB 2.0 high speed and is fully compliant with USB Video Class (UVC) 1.0 standard.

"An increasing number of consumers are utilizing attachable and embedded PC cameras to enhance the functionality of Instant Messenger (IM) programs, such as MSN, Yahoo Messenger, QQ, or Skype," said Jun Zhu, general manager of PC multimedia Product Unit of Vimicro. "301V is an image processor optimized for Windows Vista, with full USB Video Class (UVC) support. Cameras embedded with Vimicro's 301V provide convenient, reliable, and easy-to-use Internet video capabilities. "

Samuel Shen, the senior director of the Strategy Cooperation Department within Microsoft (China)'s R&D Group said, "We have provided extensive Windows Vista compatibility testing support and resources to ensure our partners' products and services are Windows Vista compliant. Today, we are gratified by the significant achievements resulting from our collaborations with Vimicro. Gradually, with support from local partners such as Vimicro, a harmonious Windows Vista ecosystem is forming."

Supporting all popular commercial CMOS sensors, 301V can process 10-bit parallel CMOS sensors data with a resolution of up to two Mega pixels. Being fully compliant with the increased bandwidth of USB 2.0 High-Speed (HS) protocol and USB 1.1 compatible, VC0301PLNV provides up to 30 fps video streaming at VGA, as well as capture still images at two Mega pixels resolution. 301V also has an integrated on-chip Imaging Signal Processor (ISP) and a built-in JPEG encoding engine allowing for high-quality streaming video on both USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 systems. Designed to the standard of USB Video Class (UVC) 1.0, cameras built with 301V can be plugged conveniently into any PC running Windows Vista or Windows XP (with Service Pack 2). Users running those platforms can utilize the camera functions without installing any dedicated PC camera driver. For cameras embedded with 301V that run on legacy PC operation systems, such as Windows 2000, Vimicro offers a dedicated driver.

About Vimicro
Vimicro International Corporation is a leading fabless semiconductor company in China that designs, develops and markets proprietary embedded multimedia signal processing chips and solutions that enable multimedia applications for mobile phones over 2.5G/3G networks and PCs over broadband Internet.
http://www.vimicro.com/english