Item 1. Business
Item 1. Business.
Overview
Pixelworks is a leading provider of high-performance and power-efficient visual processing solutions that bridge the gap between video content formats and rapidly advancing display capabilities. We develop and market semiconductor and software solutions that enable consistently high-quality, authentic viewing experiences in a wide variety of applications from cinema to smartphones. Our primary target markets include Mobile (smartphone, gaming and tablet), Home Entertainment (TV, personal video recorder ("PVR"), over-the-air ("OTA") and projector), Content (creation, remastering and delivery), and Business & Education (projector).
We were one of the first companies to commercially launch a video System on Chip ("SoC") capable of deinterlacing 1080i HDTV signals and one of the first companies with a commercial dual-channel 1080i deinterlacer integrated circuit. Our Topaz product line was one of the industry’s first single-chip SoC for digital projection. We first introduced our motion estimation / motion compensation technology ("MEMC") for TVs and in recent years introduced a mobile-optimized MEMC solution for smartphones, one of several unique features in our mobile-optimized X5 visual processor. In 2019, we introduced our Hollywood award-winning TrueCut® video platform, the industry’s first motion grading technology that allows fine tuning of motion appearance in cinematic content for a wide range of frame rates, shutter angles and display types.
Our solutions enable worldwide manufacturers to offer leading-edge consumer electronics and professional display products, as well as video delivery and streaming solutions for content service providers. Our core visual display processing technology intelligently processes digital images and video from a variety of sources and optimizes the content for a superior viewing experience. Our video coding technology reduces storage requirements, significantly reduces bandwidth constraint issues and converts content between multiple formats to enable seamless delivery of video, including OTA streaming, while also maintaining end-to-end content security.
Rapid growth in video and gaming consumption, combined with the move towards high frame rate / refresh rate displays, especially in mobile, is increasing the demand for our visual processing and video delivery solutions. Our technologies can be applied to a wide range of devices from large-screen projectors to cinematic big screens, to low-power mobile tablets, smartphones, high-quality video infrastructure equipment and streaming devices. Our products are architected and optimized for power, cost, bandwidth, and overall system performance, according to the requirements of the specific application. On occasion, we have also licensed our technology.
As of December 31, 2021, we held an intellectual property portfolio of 335 patents related to the visual display of digital image data. We focus our research and development efforts on developing video algorithms that improve quality, and architectures that reduce system power, cost, bandwidth and increase overall system performance and device functionality. We seek to expand our technology portfolio through internal development and co-development with business partners, and we continually evaluate acquisition opportunities and other ways to leverage our technology into other high-value markets.
During the third quarter of 2021, we engaged in a strategic plan to re-align our mobile, projector, and video delivery businesses to improve their focus on the Asia-centered customers and employee stakeholders of those businesses. The global center of the mobile, projector, and video delivery businesses continues to be in Asia, and the steps we have taken to date and going forward are intended to improve our ability to access capital, customers, and talent. We have operated our primary R&D center in Asia for over 15 years and feel that the time is right to take advantage of that existing footprint and develop our subsidiary, Pixelworks Semiconductor Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (or "PWSH") as a full profit-and-loss center underneath Pixelworks, Inc. for the mobile, projector, and video delivery businesses. Most of these steps were completed before the end of 2021.
This plan will further enable PWSH to seek qualification to file an application for an initial public offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Science Technology Innovation Board, known as the STAR Market (the “Listing”). We believe that the Listing will have many benefits, including improved access to new capital markets and the funding of its growth worldwide. We presently intend to qualify PWSH to apply for the Listing so that the Listing is consummated in 2023. The process of going public on the STAR Market includes several periods of review and, therefore, is a lengthy process. There is no guarantee that PWSH will be approved for a Listing at any point in the future.
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Key Markets
We target four key market segments with our products and solutions including:
Market
Products
Mobile (Smartphone, Gaming, Tablet)
Visual processors and software
Home Entertainment (TV, PVR, OTA, Projector)
XCode® transcoding solutions and visual processors
Content (Creation, Remastering, Delivery)
TrueCut® platform for content creators/video providers
Business and Education (Projectors)
Visual processors
Bridging the Performance Gap Between Content Formats and Device Capabilities
In recent years, display refresh rates for TVs, tablets and smartphones have been advancing faster than the ability of content formats to keep up. The refresh rate, measured in Hertz ("Hz"), is the number of times per second the display updates the image on screen to convey motion. Today, TV displays generally have a refresh rate of 120 Hz, while smartphones are now moving from 60 to 90 and 120 Hz. Despite this trend, the vast majority of produced video content exists only in 24-25 frames per second ("FPS"), while most gaming and user generated content is at 30 FPS. While frame rates for new game content is on the rise, the rendering, compute and thermal limits of today’s mobile processors often limit the effective frame rates to well below 60 FPS. The resulting mismatch between low frame rate content and high refresh rate screens creates artifacts, such as judder and strobing, that degrade video quality and destroy creative intent. The trend towards brighter, h igh dynamic range (" HDR") capable screens make these artifacts more noticeable to viewers. Visual quality is further i mpeded by power constraints and changes in ambient lighting, particularly in mobile devices.
Our technologies and solutions efficiently bridge the quality gap and enable the visual storytelling that is richer and true to creative intent. In fact, our TrueCut Motion Grading is the industry’s first solution to give filmmakers the ability to cinematically fine-tune motion blur, judder and frame-rate appearance and is used as part of the creative process to empower filmmakers to shoot at any frame-rate, then deliver a cinematically tuned, broader set of motion and frame rate appearances. While TrueCut technology enables creation of new content or remastering of existing content that preserves artistic intent across screens, from cinema to home TVs to smartphones, our mobile display processors and software bridge the quality gap for all existing content viewed on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets.
Display Trends
Display technologies have recently begun to transition from an era of higher resolutions, response times and frame rates, with lower power and thinner form factors, to one focused on higher contrast, brightness and more colors.
In mobile devices, Apple Inc. has brought wide color gamut to many of their devices including the iPhone, iPad Pro, MacBook Pro and iMac. These devices deliver the same color gamut used in digital cinema theatres ("DCI-P3"). Meanwhile, TV manufacturers including Samsung, TCL, Sony and LG are bringing high contrast, high brightness or HDR TVs based on organic light emitting diodes ("OLED") and local-dimming liquid crystal display ("LCD") panels to the living room. Furthermore, some premium and mid-tier smartphones and tablets from Apple, Samsung, Sony, LG and Huawei now include HDR as a standard feature.
Hardware improvements in color and contrast are of little value without content that can take advantage of them. In fact, a significant gap now exists between the vast majority of video content available to consumers and these emerging display devices.
• Contrast and Brightness: Almost all movies available to consumers today use the "Rec.709" ITU standard format. This format defines brightness levels up to around 100 "nits" (a standard measure of brightness), whereas HDR TVs are five to ten times brighter, from 540 nits upwards. Most mobile devices support over 400 nits and sometimes over 600 nits.
• Color Gamut: DCI-P3 has a 25% larger color gamut than Rec.709.
• Frame Rate: TVs commonly display at 120 frames per second (120 Hz) and up to 240 Hz on more sophisticated higher-end models. Many premium tier mobile displays were launched in 2020 with 120 Hz screens, which are quickly cascading down to lower price points. Some of the gaming smartphones now have displays that run at up to 144 Hz.
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• Resolution: TVs have achieved 4k resolutions (3840x2160) and mobile devices today can achieve up to 3440x1440 resolution, and while some content is available in 4k resolution, most movies are only available in FHD or HD resolutions, which is typically 1920x1080 and 1280x720 respectively.
This gap between display capabilities and available content brings significant challenges to video display device manufacturers. Sophisticated video processing is required to accurately reproduce the intended video on today’s displays. We help bridge this gap between the display capabilities and available content with our visual processors and software and TrueCut® video platform for content creators and video providers.
Content formats are evolving to take advantage of these display improvements. For example, Dolby introduced the "Dolby Vision™" format for movies and devices, in order to allow consumers to realize the benefits of HDR and wide color gamut. The industry standards body Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers released a format specification known as "HDR10" that similarly bridges the gap in contrast and color between content and devices. The Ultra-HD Blu-ray disk format and streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Video now support 4k HDR, aided by improved compression standards such as H.265.
Managing many content formats across a rapidly evolving range of displays is a significant and growing challenge. Older content tends to not get upgraded to the newer formats, yet consumers expect all content to display correctly. As the number of content formats grow, the technology of video processing becomes increasingly complex.
Delivering the intent of the content creator requires sophisticated algorithms and hardware circuits. Frame-rate and motion incompatibilities require a significantly higher level of processing and more sophisticated algorithms in order to avoid creating new problems. Most TVs today include frame-rate conversion chips, but many reviewers complain about artifacts such as halos, breakup in the image and the so-called "soap opera effect". Unfortunately, without frame-rate conversion, the video can appear to have judder and blur at levels that have increased substantially as a result of the improvements in contrast, color and detail.
In addition to judder, high-resolution displays suffer from softness and smearing in motion sequences called motion blur. There are numerous causes of motion blur. The materials used in constructing pixels on the display take a finite amount of time to transition from one state to another. If this time is too long, the image does not update swiftly and motion sequences seem to smear or blur. For example, Hollywood movies, TV shows and other premium content are usually authored at 24 frames per second or 24 Hz. At this frame rate, the brain can easily notice the transition from one frame to the next. As the brain and eyes track objects in motion, they have to jump in discrete steps due to the low frame rate. This stop-start motion is perceived by the brain as motion blur, reducing the visible clarity and fidelity of objects in motion. Additionally, when a motion sequence is played on a digital display device, the new updated frame is drawn over the top of the still visible previous frame. This "hold" effect is perceived by the brain as blur.
Judder and motion blur artifacts are more noticeable on high contrast, wider gamut displays, regardless of screen size (for example, a 5-inch smartphone screen viewed from ten inches away appears to be the same size as a 60-inch large screen TV viewed from ten feet away). Our advanced video display processing provides original equipment manufacturers ("OEMs") with solutions that avoid or minimize these artifacts and help realize the potential of their investment in high-resolution displays. We believe the most effective method for removing both judder and reducing blur is MEMC technology. This technology is based on complex mathematical algorithms that insert additional, interpolated frames to create a new, faster sequence of frames that has smooth, continuous motion. This technique works for virtually all types of panel technology.
Video Consumption Trend
With the advent of digital video, it has become possible to deliver video to consumers in an ever-increasing number of ways. Traditional delivery mechanisms, such as over the air broadcasts, cable, satellite, DVDs and Blu-ray, are being supplemented with Internet streaming and download services. With these new video delivery options comes the ability to offer more services and improved quality.
According to recent studies by Cisco Systems, Inc. ("Cisco"), video will constitute 82% of all global consumer Internet traffic by 2022. Global IP video traffic and Internet video traffic will both grow four-fold from 2017 to 2022. Live Internet video will account for 17 percent of Internet video traffic by 2022. Live video will grow 15-fold from 2017 to 2022. This rapid increase in video consumption is being driven by a variety of connected digital video devices and applications that allow consumers to easily create, share and consume video. In particular, mobile video consumption is rapidly expanding. The "always on" and ease of use of mobile devices are helping to make them the preferred choice as the "first screen" for many consumers.
As more content becomes increasingly available via the Internet, consumers have more choices for how and where they can enjoy content. According to Cisco, by 2022 there will be 9.4 billion connected mobile devices across the globe.
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Video and Gaming Market for Mobile Devices
Mobile devices have become the dominant driver of video consumption and growth. According to the Q3 2019 Global Video Index report from Brightcove, Inc., more than 62% of all video views are now on mobile devices. Video also continues to grow as a share of mobile traffic usage. According to the June 2020 Ericsson Mobility Report, video now constitutes 63% of global mobile traffic and will rise to a 76% share by 2025. The burgeoning global gaming market is dominated by the smartphone segment, with 2.5 billion users, according to NewZoo1, a leading market intelligence service covering gaming, mobile and eSports. In China alone, the number of mobile gamers is expected to reach 637 million with revenue of $32 billion by 2024, compared to $18.5 billion in 2019 – implying 73% growth over five years, according to Niko Partners’ May 2020 report, China Mobile Games Market.
Mobile display systems pose a number of unique challenges. Power is of primary importance, impacting form factor, cost and performance. As these systems have added more functionality, new features have had to compete for battery life, internal bandwidth and space. The addition of high-resolution displays has further increased the burden on these resources.
Using the same technology developed for large screen TVs is neither feasible nor desirable. The video display processing pipelines used in TVs consume many watts of power and would be unsuitable for battery powered systems. In TVs, the size constraints on electronics are significantly less stringent when compared to mobile systems. To furnish the mobile market with appropriate solutions, we have taken a holistic, system-wide view and re-invented its video display processing technology to fit within the mobile constraints of battery life, bandwidth, form factor and performance. This approach has enabled us to create technology that meets the power and size requirements of mobile as well as offering additional benefits such as reducing the bandwidth burden of high-resolution video and freeing up more bandwidth for the CPU and GPU.
The mobile market today is primarily comprised of smartphones and tablets. Our technology addresses both of these markets.
• Smartphones. Smartphones have become a popular choice for many consumers. International Data Corporation ("IDC") estimates that 1.52 billion smartphones will be sold in 2023. The resolution of smartphone displays is growing, while the color gamut and contrast is moving toward DCI-P3 and HDR. These improvements in displays actually exacerbate the quality issues of video playback, a growing problem as users increasingly use their smartphones as their primary form of video consumption.
• Tablets. The line between tablets and smartphones is becoming increasingly indistinct as more tablets are offering mobile connectivity and are now available in sizes similar to those of smartphones. Tablets offer broad appeal to consumers. With the display being the salient component of smartphones and tablets, and the rapidly increasing use of these devices for video consumption, we believe that the incorporation of video display processing is the next logical step.
As 5G network coverage rapidly expands worldwide, the availability of 5G chipsets targeting smartphones priced as low as $200 in 2021, should reinvigorate market growth given the increased speed and lower latency of the wireless connections. According to Counterpoint Research, 14% of smartphones sold in the U.S. in August 2020 included 5G connectivity. In a recent 2020 report, IDC projected the smartphone market to return to a full recovery by 2022 and that 5G smartphones would capture a 50% global share of shipments by 2023. In addition, service providers in some countries will also utilize 5G networks to provide fixed wireless broadband. We further believe our compelling mobile display processing functionality, combined with 5G capability, will help motivate consumers to replace their 3G and 4G phones at a faster rate than occurred in the past two years. Finally, a new smartphone category has emerged as top vendors have previewed foldable smartphones which serve as a phone, and a mini tablet when unfolded. As prices for this capability inevitably come down, and further competition emerges, we believe this new category, along with the rollout of 5G networks, can strengthen the mobile device market.
Business and Education Market for Digital Projectors
Increasingly affordable price points are driving continued adoption of digital projectors in business and education, as well as among consumers. Technology improvements are helping to reduce the size and weight of projection devices while increasing their performance. Projector models range from larger units designed to be permanently installed in a conference hall or other venue, to ultra-portable devices weighing fewer than two pounds for maximum portability. According to PMA Research Limited, the worldwide front projector market shipped 8.5 million units in 2020 and is forecasted to reach 12 million units by 2024.
The feature set of projection systems differs from that of a typical large-screen flat panel display such as a TV. This is primarily because the projector is a sharing and collaboration device while the TV is designed for direct consumption of content.
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The front projection market serves several different areas such as business, education and home theater. Business users employ multimedia projectors to display both still and video presentation materials from PCs and other sources. Requirements for the business market include portability, compatibility with multiple software and hardware applications, and features that ensure simple operation. In education environments ranging from elementary schools to university campuses, projectors help teachers integrate media-rich instruction into classrooms. Home theater projector systems can drive large-screen displays for content consumption where flat panel displays are either economically not viable or physically incompatible for use.
Consistent with the trends of other consumer products, digital projectors are increasingly incorporating networking capabilities that enable the sharing of video and other content among multiple devices. This, in turn, is enabling new use models for digital projection in both the education and business environments. For example, one teacher can present the same material simultaneously in multiple classrooms, and students in different classrooms can display and discuss their work. Such connectivity allows instant access to content and sharing of content, which promotes interaction and collaboration among dispersed groups. In the business setting, this connectivity enables teleconferencing and the seamless sharing of content for more effective meetings.
Video Delivery Market for Home Entertainment
With the acquisition of ViXS Systems Inc. in August 2017, we expanded both our market presence and product portfolio. The video industry continues to evolve and adopt new video standards such as High Efficiency Video Coding, 4K Ultra HD and HDR. The technical and processing demands of these standards are complex and play directly into our core competencies. Our technologies for video delivery are highly integrated, low power and provide high quality video processing, allowing seamless connectivity between devices while maintaining end-to-end content security.
The home entertainment sub-markets that we address with our video delivery products include:
• Consumer Products - OEMs and Original Design Manufacturers ("ODMs") design products for the consumer electronics segments.
• OTA - Over the Air applications for single, dual, and quad streaming requirements. End users who want to either "cut the cord" or supplement their service offerings.
• IP Streaming - Network streaming devices capable of content portability, and support for your own screen (phone and tablet devices), deployed by service operators.
Consumer Products
High-resolution (UHD/4K), sustained bitrate decoding (100Mbit) and advanced video formats (HDR10, HDR10+) are key requirements for advanced personal video recorder ("PVR") products sold in the Japanese market, where the end consumers rate video quality as a key acquisition criteria. This advanced PVR market in Japan is experiencing growth as products move from 2K to UHD/4K formats. In addition, as the market introduces new broadcast technologies, like Advanced Digital Satellite Broadcast ("ADSB") in Japan, and ATSC 3.0 in Korea and North America, there are further growth opportunities in this market segment.
OTA
Subscribers to video content in the home are making changes and demanding choices. While content is freely available, if it is distributed over an operator network, or even simply over IP, there is a monthly re-transmit fee that is charged to the consumer. As the number of video subscribers to services such as cable TV has been declining, the monthly re-transmit fee has been increasing. These fee increases are leading more consumers to ‘cut the cord’ and replace their TV subscriptions with over the top ("OTT") video services and free OTA broadcast television. As part of their OTA experience, consumers are starting to require multiple stream support of concurrent channels, so various devices can view different channels at the same time.
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IP Streaming
Related to OTA applications, the service operators that want to provide their own choice to their video subscribers are taking advantage of our IP Streaming applications. These re-use common platforms, and connect to the in-home infrastructure, either at the set top box level, or the Wi-Fi router level. This provides a centralized place where the management, and distribution of content can occur.
For service operators, the benefits are:
• Customer retention
• Reduced use of network bandwidth for free OTA channels
For consumers, the benefits are:
• One menu that provides aggregation of Linear, Video-on-Demand, OTT, and OTA content
• Reduced monthly fees related to lower re-transmission fees
Core Technologies and Products
We have developed a portfolio of advanced video algorithms and IP to address a broad range of challenges in digital video. We believe our technologies can significantly improve video quality and will become increasingly important as the popularity of video content consumption grows, and pixel densities, screen size and image quality increase. Our products are designed with a flexible architecture that allows us to combine algorithms and functional blocks of digital and mixed signal circuitry. Accordingly, our technologies can be implemented across multiple products, in combinations within single products and can be applied to a broad range of applications including smartphones, tablets, and projectors. The majority of our products include one or more technologies to provide optimal high-quality video display processing solutions to our customers, regardless of screen size.
Our core Video Display Processing technologies include:
• MotionEngine® MEMC . Our proprietary MEMC technology significantly improves the performance and viewing experience of any screen by addressing problems such as judder and motion blur. Unlike competitive solutions it also reduces halo effects that are a byproduct of MEMC. Halos are objectionable blurred regions that surround moving objects as the MEMC algorithms try to reconstruct missing image data caused by the concealing and revealing of objects as they pass over or behind one another. Removing halos dramatically improves image quality and is of particular importance on high-resolution displays where artifacts become more visible.
• AI Based Display Processing. The Pixelworks i6 processor dramatically improves video and image quality and sets a new standard for picture quality on both LCD and OLED mobile displays with a new AI-driven architecture and dynamic refresh rate support for up to 144 Hz. Its lightweight AI display inferencing augments the Company’s knowledge base, numerous real time inputs and fuzzy logic IP to adaptively and intelligently optimize overall picture quality for video, games and photos at low power, including real time SDR-to-HDR conversion and AI adaptive display.
• Advanced Scaling. As display resolutions continue to increase, there is a need to convert lower resolution content to higher resolution in order to display content properly. With the latest wave of high-resolution displays, the quality and quantity demands of scaling have increased significantly. Artifacts become more noticeable on these types of displays as they distract from the realism effect. In addition, with the availability of high-resolution content lagging behind the availability of high-resolution displays, high-quality scaling is required to ensure high resolution displays do not suffer when compared to Full-HD displays of the same size. Our advanced scaling is designed to ensure that up-conversion of lower resolution content is of the highest quality in maintaining the fidelity of image.
• Mobile Video Display Processing. We have developed innovative video display processing solutions that are designed to optimize power consumption for mobile devices. Beyond MEMC and advanced scaling, these mobile solutions provide the kind of improvements in color, contrast, sharpness and de-blur that are currently only found in high quality TVs today. Furthermore, this technology can reduce system power consumption and extend battery life.
• Transcoding/Decoding . Digital Delivery forms the bulk of not just video content, but all internet bandwidth today. However, throughout the entire chain from inception to consumption, there are multiple variations in bitrate, resolution, and codecs used for both audio and video. Transcoding is a fundamental technology used throughout this pipeline that leads to moving pictures viewed on TVs and mobile devices. The XCODE family of ASICs has enabled many devices within this pipeline, from the racks in some service providers all the way down to the home user watching broadcast OTA TV on a smartphone. XCODE technology provides solutions that deliver UHD Blu-ray PVRs with capability of transcoding recorded content suitable for viewing on smartphones. The technology supports today’s broadcast standards, such as ATSC 1.0, DVB/T/T2/S/S2, ISDB/T/S, and ADSB and is scalable to support upcoming broadcast standards such as ATSC 3.0.
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• SDR to HDR Conversion. UHD video has standardized on a technology known as HDR to deliver higher dynamic range content. This has resulted in several competing HDR deployments like HDR10, HLG and HDR10+ with support by multiple industry giants. Our HDR conversion technology can not only convert between SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) and HDR10, it can also convert among HDR10, HLG and HDR10+ solving an interconnectivity problem between content formatted in one HDR format to Display devices that supports a different HDR standard.
Our product development strategy is to leverage our expertise in video display processing to address the evolving needs of our target markets. We plan to continue to focus our development resources to maintain our position in these markets by providing leading edge solutions for the advanced digital projection and video delivery markets and to enhance our video processing solutions for mobile markets. We deliver our technology in a variety of offerings, which take the form of single-purpose chips, highly integrated SoCs that incorporate specialized software, full solutions incorporating software and other tools and IP cores that allow our technology to be incorporated into third party solutions.
Our primary video display processor product categories include the following:
• ImageProcessor ICs. Our ImageProcessor ICs include embedded microprocessors, digital signal processing technology and software that control the operations and signal processing within high-end display systems. ImageProcessor ICs were our first product offerings and continue to comprise the majority of our business. We have continued to refine the architectures for optimal performance, manufacturing our products on process technologies that align with our customers’ requirements. Additionally, we provide a software development environment and operating system that enables our customers to more quickly develop and customize the "look and feel" of their products.
• Video Co-Processor ICs. Products in this category work with an image processor to post-process video signals to enhance the performance or feature set of the overall video solution (for example, by significantly reducing judder and motion blur). Our Video Co-Processor ICs can be used with our ImageProcessor ICs or with image processing solutions from other manufacturers, and in most cases can be incorporated without assistance from the supplier of the base image processor. This flexibility enables manufacturers to augment their existing or new designs to enhance their video display products.
• Transcoder ICs. Our Transcoder ICs include embedded microprocessors, digital signal processing technology and software that control the operations and signal processing for converting multiple bitrates, resolutions and codecs to provide bandwidth efficient video transmissions based on industry standard protocols. Our transcoder technology allows for single, dual and even quad streaming solutions for OTA products. Like our other ICs, we have continued to refine the architectures for optimal performance, manufacturing our products on process technologies that align with our customers’ requirements. Additionally, we provide a software development environment that enables our customers to more quickly develop and customize their products.
Customers, Sales and Marketing
The key focus of our global sales and marketing strategy is to achieve design wins with industry leading branded manufacturers in our target markets and to continue building strong customer relationships. Once a design win has been achieved, sales and marketing efforts are focused on building long-term mutually beneficial business relationships with our customers by providing superior technology and reducing their costs, which complements our customers’ product development objectives and meets their expectations for price-performance and time to market. Marketing efforts are focused on building market-leading brand awareness and preference for our solutions.
We utilize direct sales and marketing resources in China, Japan, Taiwan, and the U.S. as well as indirect resources in several regions. In addition to sales and marketing representatives, we have field application engineers who provide technical expertise and assistance to manufacturing customers on final product development.
Our global distribution channel is multi-tiered and involves both direct and indirect distribution channels, as described below:
• Distributors. Distributors are resellers in local markets who provide engineering support and stock our semiconductors in direct relation to specific manufacturing customer orders. Our distributors often have valuable and established relationships with our end customers, and in certain countries it is customary to sell to distributors. While a distributor's payment to us is not dependent upon the distributor’s ability to resell the product or to collect from the end customer, our distributors may provide longer payment terms to end customers than those we would offer. Sales to distributors accounted for 56% and 49% of revenue in 2021 and 2020 respectively.
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One of our distributors, Tokyo Electron Device Ltd. represented more than 10% of revenue in each of 2021 and 2020, and accounted for more than 10% of accounts receivable as of December 31, 2021. Another distributor, Upstar Technology Limited accounted for more than 10% of revenue in 2021 and accounted for more than 10% of accounts receivable as of December 31, 2021 and 2020. No other distributor accounted for more than 10% of revenue in 2021 and 2020 or represented more than 10% of accounts receivable as of December 31, 2021 or 2020.
We have distributor relationships in Japan, China, Europe, Korea, Taiwan and the U.S.
• Direct Relationships. We have established direct relationships with companies that manufacture high-end display systems. Some of our direct relationships are supported by commission-based manufacturers’ representatives, who are independent sales agents that represent us in local markets and provide engineering support but do not carry inventory. Revenue through direct relationships accounted for 44% and 51% of total revenue in 2021 and 2020, respectively.
We have direct relationships with companies falling into the following three classifications:
• Integrators . Integrators are OEMs who build display devices based on specifications provided by branded suppliers.
• Branded Manufacturers . Branded manufacturers are globally recognized manufacturers who develop display device specifications and manufacture, market and distribute display devices either directly or through resellers to end-users.
• Branded Suppliers . Branded suppliers are globally recognized suppliers who develop display device specifications and then source them from integrators, typically in Asia, and distribute them either directly or through resellers to end-users.
Revenue attributable to our top five end customers together represented 76% and 58% of revenue in 2021 and 2020, respectively. End customers include customers who purchase directly from us as well as customers who purchase products indirectly through distributors. Sales to Seiko Epson Corporation represented more than 10% of revenue in each of 2021 and 2020, and accounted for more than 10% of accounts receivable as of December 31, 2021 and 2020. Sales to vivo Communication Technology Co. Ltd. represented more than 10% of revenue in 2021. No other end customer accounted for more than 10% of revenue in 2021 and 2020 or represented more than 10% of accounts receivable as of December 31, 2021 or 2020.
Seasonality
Our business is subject to seasonality related to the markets we serve and the location of our customers. For example, we have historically experienced higher revenue from the digital projector market in the third quarter of the year, and lower revenue in the first quarter of the year, as our Japanese customers reduce inventories in anticipation of their March 31 fiscal year end.
Geographic Distribution of Sales
Sales outside the U.S. accounted for approximately 97% and 93% of revenue in 2021 and 2020 respectively.
Financial information regarding our domestic and foreign operations is presented in "Note 14. Segment Information" in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Backlog
Our sales are made pursuant to customer purchase orders for delivery of standard products. The volume of product actually purchased by our customers, as well as shipment schedules, are subject to frequent revisions that reflect changes in both the customers’ needs and product availability. In light of industry practice and our own experience, we do not believe that backlog as of any particular date is indicative of future results.
Competition
The semiconductor industry is intensely competitive. Further, the markets for higher performance display and projection devices, including the markets for mobile devices, digital projectors and other applications demanding high quality video, are characterized by rapid technological change, evolving industry standards, compressed product life cycles and declining average selling prices. We believe the principal competitive factors in our markets include product performance, time to market, cost, functional versatility provided by software, customer relationships and reputation, patented innovative designs, levels of product integration, compliance with industry standards and system design cost. We believe we compete favorably with respect to these factors.
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Our current products face competition from developers of application processors and specialized display controllers designed by merchant chip vendors, our customers, potential customers and display panel vendors. Additionally, new alternative display processing technologies and industry standards may emerge that compete with technologies we offer.
We also compete with specialized and diversified electronics and semiconductor companies that offer display processors or scaling components including: Actions Microelectronics Co., Ltd., ARM Holdings PLC, Dolby Laboratories, Inc., Egis Technology Inc., Hisilicon Technologies Co., Ltd., i-Chips Technology Inc., Lattice Semiconductor Corporation, MediaTek Inc., Novatek Microelectronics Corp., NVIDIA Corporation, Qualcomm Incorporated, Realtek Semiconductor Corp., Renesas Electronics America Inc., Socionext Inc., Solomon Systech (International) Ltd., STMicroelectronics N.V., Sunplus Technology Co., Ltd., Synaptics Incorporated, Texas Instruments Incorporated, Unisoc Communications, Inc., and other companies. Potential and current competitors may include diversified semiconductor manufacturers and the semiconductor divisions or affiliates of some of our customers, including: Apple Inc., Broadcom Inc., LG Electronics, Inc., MegaChips Corporation, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, Inc., NEC Corporation, Panasonic Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Socionext Inc., ON Semiconductor Corporation, Seiko Epson Corporation, Sharp Electronics Corporation, Sony Corporation, and Toshiba America, Inc. In addition, start-up companies may seek to compete in our markets.
Research and Development
Low power research and development efforts are focused on the development of our solutions for the mobile device, digital projector and video delivery markets. Our development efforts are focused on pursuing higher levels of video performance, integration and new features in order to provide our customers with solutions that enable them to introduce market leading products and help lower final systems costs.
We have invested, and expect to continue to invest, significant resources in research and development activities. Our research and development expenses were $27.3 million and $25.0 million in 2021 and 2020, respectively. During 2021, we received a reimbursement related to a co-development arrangement with a customer for costs incurred in connection with our development of an integrated circuit ("IC") product. As a result of the reimbursement, our overall research and development expense was reduced by $4.0 million in 2021. There were no reductions to research and development expense related to co-development arrangements in 2020.
Manufacturing
Within the semiconductor industry we are known as a "fabless" company, meaning that we do not manufacture the semiconductors that we design and develop, but instead contract with a limited number of foundries and assembly and test vendors to produce all of our wafers and for completion of finished products. The fabless approach allows us to concentrate our resources on product design and development where we believe we have greater competitive advantages.
See "Risk Factors" in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for information on risks related to our manufacturing strategy and processes.
Intellectual Property
We protect our projector, mobile, video delivery and TrueCut businesses with a combination of nondisclosure agreements and patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws to protect the algorithms, design and architecture of our technology. As of December 31, 2021, we held 335 patents and have 9 patent applications pending, compared to 338 patents and 9 patent applications pending as of December 31, 2020. The patents we hold relate generally to improvements in the visual display of digital image data including, but not limited to, improvements in image scaling, image correction, automatic image optimization and video signal processing for digital displays. Our U.S. and foreign patents are generally enforceable for 20 years from the date they were filed. Accordingly, our issued patents have from approximately 1 to 18 years remaining in their respective term, depending on their filing dates. We believe that the remaining term of our patents is adequate relative to the expected lives of our related products.
We intend to seek patent protection for other significant technologies that we have already developed and expect to seek patent protection for future products and technologies as necessary. Patents may not be issued as a result of any pending applications and any claims allowed under issued patents may be insufficiently broad to protect our technology. Existing or future patents may be invalidated, diluted, circumvented, challenged or licensed to others. Furthermore, the laws of certain foreign countries in which our products are or may be developed, manufactured or sold, including various countries in Asia, may not protect our products or intellectual property rights in the same manner and to the same extent as do the laws of the U.S. and, thus, make the possibility of piracy of our technology and products more likely in these countries.
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The semiconductor industry is characterized by vigorous protection of intellectual property rights, which have resulted in significant and often protracted and expensive litigation. We, our customers or our foundries from time to time may be notified of claims that we may be infringing patents or other intellectual property rights owned by third parties. Litigation by or against us relating to patent infringement or other intellectual property matters could result in significant expense to us and divert the efforts of our technical and management personnel, whether or not such litigation results in a determination favorable to us. In the event of an adverse result in any such litigation, we could be required to pay substantial damages, cease the manufacture, use and sale of infringing products, expend significant resources to develop non-infringing technology, discontinue the use of certain processes or obtain licenses to the infringing technology. We may not be able to settle any alleged patent infringement claim through a cross-licensing arrangement. In the event any third party made a valid claim against us, our customers or our foundries, and a license was not made available to us on terms that are acceptable to us or at all, we would be adversely affected.
See "Risk Factors" in Part I, Item 1A, and "Note 11. Commitments and Contingencies" in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for information on various risks related to intellectual property.
Environmental Matters
Environmental laws and regulations are complex, change frequently and have tended to become more stringent over time. We have incurred, and may continue to incur, significant expenditures to comply with these laws and regulations and we may incur additional capital expenditures and asset impairments to ensure that our products and our vendors’ products are in compliance with these regulations. We would be subject to significant penalties for failure to comply with these laws and regulations.
See "Risk Factors" in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for information on various environmental risks.
Employees
As of December 31, 2021, we had a total of 217 employees, the majority of which were full-time, compared to 197 employees as of December 31, 2020.
Corporate Information
Pixelworks was founded in 1997 and is incorporated under the laws of the state of Oregon. Our stock is traded on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol "PXLW".
Availability of Securities and Exchange Commission Filings
We make available through our website our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports and any filings filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act of 1934, free of charge as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file or furnish such material with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Our Internet address is www.pixelworks.com. The content on, or that can be accessed through, our website is not incorporated by reference into this filing. Our committee charters and code of ethics are also available free of charge on our website.
The SEC maintains an Internet site at http://www.sec.gov that contains our Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports, if any, or other filings filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, proxy and information statements.
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