原创 Marvell公司副总裁Nikhil Balram的简介

Marvell公司副总裁Nikhil Balram的简介

时间：2007年5月21日

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Nikhil Balram博士是Marvell公司通讯和消费者事业部数字娱乐事业副总裁暨总经理，本文文末的评论部分，将为大家翻译一部分文章重点。

I have over 20 years' experience in digital signal/image/video/display processing and have a deep passion for what I call the “Visual Processing Pipeline.” This process starts with the creation of a visual element (pixel) either from a natural source such as a camera or an artificial source such as a graphics model, and it culminates in the resulting response in the human visual system, with numerous complex processing and storage steps in-between. I have spent my whole career studying the various stages of this pipeline and continuously improving the objective (“information content”) and subjective (“pleasure”) results. This has taken me through a very scenic career that includes developing statistical image models and graphics rendering algorithms, defining and architecting innovative graphics and video ICs, developing flat-panel and head-mounted display subsystems, creating new and sometimes controversial digital media products, and even managing the process of selling end products to the mass consumer market through retail.

During the course of my career, I have served as an executive at several public companies in the CE and display industries including Faroudja, Sage, Genesis Microchip, SONICblue, National Semiconductor, and most recently and currently, Marvell. At Faroudja Laboratories, as vice president of Advanced Technology, I was responsible for conceiving and driving the company strategy to transform the company from a high-end-niche video systems provider to a mainstream consumer IC vendor. While there, I played a major role in the creation of Video2000, the first comprehensive video benchmark in the PC industry, launched in February 2000. I realized that in order to pave the way for truly differentiated video technology to enter the mass market, we needed to provide tools that enable even the non-technical consumer to easily understand and appreciate the difference between good and bad video. The video quality test patterns that I authored for this purpose became a de facto benchmark, widely used in the consumer electronics and display industries.

After Sage Inc. merged with Faroudja, I served as executive vice president and general manager of the newly formed Consumer Products group. Under my tenure the company developed four product families of display and video processors, including the award-winning FLI2200 and FLI23xx. The company also achieved design wins with over 80 products from over 20 top CE OEMs in flat-panel LCD and plasma TVs, digital TVs, DVD players, and digital projectors. As part of developing a long-term sustainable consumer IC business, I conceived and launched the highly successful “DCDi by Faroudja” branding strategy, which we explained and promoted through the above-mentioned video test material, the most famous of which was a waving US flag sequence that showed smooth and natural images produced by our technology.This branding was very successful and was adopted by many leading OEMs all over the world. I also conceived and launched the Faroudja certification program and the Faroudja patent licensing program. After Genesis Microchip’s merger with Sage Inc., I briefly served as vice president of Consumer Products, responsible for defining and driving consumer ICs for the merged companies.

Wanting to experience the process by which leading-edge consumer products are conceived, developed and brought to the end consumer, and seeking a change of pace, I joined SONICblue as vice president for Connected Home Products. I was responsible for the P&L for Connected Home products that included the highly-acclaimed ReplayTV product line. I managed and successfully launched SONICblue’s first mass-market Digital Video Recorder, the RTV5000 series.

After SONICblue I joined National Semiconductor as chief technology officer for the Displays Group and later served as general manager of their High-Definition Products division. There I provided strategic guidance for the development and launch of the PPDS architecture for next-generation LCD-TV panels, led the development of the QuietVideo suite of technologies, and launched the 25xx family of video format converters that are used by leading CE companies. National Semiconductor sold this business unit to Marvell and as of May 1^st, 2006, I joined Marvell in my current position as vice president and general manager of the Digital Entertainment Business Unit.

At Marvell my new business unit develops innovative IC solutions for the digital entertainment market. At CES in January 2007 we announced our first product family. The DE2700 series of adaptive digital video format converter ICs uses our QuietVideo technology to produce the world’s best image quality from a variety of sources, ranging from low-resolution iPod video or YouTube content, all the way up to HD content from blue-laser media or broadcast.