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OT: SRS Labs Announces Availability of WOW(TM) and VIP(TM) for Texas Instruments' Low Cost, Power-Efficient TMS320C55x(TM) DSP Family
New eXpressDSP(TM) Compliant Algorithms for Audio and Voice to Improve Performance of the New Generation of Cost-Sensitive, Handheld and Internet- Enabled Multimedia Devices
SANTA ANA, Calif., May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- SRS Labs, Inc. (Nasdaq: SRSL - news), the world's leading provider of innovative audio and voice technology solutions, today announced the availability of its two eXpressDSP(TM) compliant algorithms, WOW(TM) and VIP(TM) for Texas Instruments Inc.'s (TI's) new high-powered TMS320C55x(TM) DSP generation for the coming wave of cost- sensitive, portable-Internet products. This new solution will provide the customers of both companies with low-cost, power-efficient DSPs to run SRS Labs proprietary audio enhancement and voice intelligibility technologies in new cost-sensitive hand-held and Internet multimedia devices.
The first algorithm is the SRS Labs' award-winning WOW audio enhancement technology for the improvement of audio dynamics, image-field width and height and bass performance of stereo audio played over small speakers or headphones. The second algorithm, VIP, Voice Intelligibility Processor, creates dramatic improvement in clarity, quality and intelligibility of voice in telecommunications applications such as cellular phones, PDAs, headsets, hands-free devices and voice over IP applications. The Company previously announced availability of eXpressDSP-compliant versions of these two technologies for TI's TMS320C54x(TM) DSP generation.
``Devices integrating voice communication, digital audio and entertainment are growing at a record pace,'' said Alan Kraemer, Executive Vice President of Technology and Business Development, SRS Labs. ``To stand out, products need to be differentiated through incorporation of unique features and superior performance. Proven audio and voice technologies from SRS Labs already enhance the user experience in millions of consumer products worldwide. Now the availability of these technologies on TI's DSP platforms provides powerful audio and voice enhancement capability to portable embedded devices. With TI's new C5502 and C5509 processors running SRS Labs' WOW audio enhancement algorithm and VIP voice intelligibility processor, the end customer now has a single chip solution to bring products to market faster than ever with the features users are demanding.''
TI's new TMS320C5502 DSP, the new price-performance leader in TI's programmable TMS320C5000(TM) DSP platform, meets the demanding cost and power budgets required by today's personal systems, with up to 400 million instructions per second (MIPS) of performance at $9.95 in 10,000 volume units. The TMS320C5509 DSP is the most highly integrated general-purpose DSP tailored to enable a new generation of Internet media entertainment appliances, personal medical, personal identification, security, digital still cameras, personal video cameras, or any combination of these applications.
``SRS Labs' participation in our Third Party Network has brought important audio and voice algorithm enhancements for our customers to choose from as we launch our new 5502 and 5509 DSPs,'' said Christine Wu, TMS320C5000 marketing manager, TI. ``By working with TI and SRS Labs, product engineers will be able to move quickly to bring the best audio and voice performance possible to portable, Internet-enabled products.''
SRS Labs' WOW and VIP technologies have completed the eXpressDSP compliance testing program with TI for both the C55x and C54x generations and are available for immediate testing.
About WOW
WOW(TM) is a patented, stereo playback enhancement technology that processes a stereo signal to provide significant improvements in dynamics and bass performance of audio, especially when it has been digitally compressed such as MP3 and WMA formats and audio CDs. Ordinary stereo presents rather limited special presentation and often lackluster bass, especially when played through wireless, mobile and personal/portable players with small speakers. WOW improves the dynamics of stereo audio, reduces the ``tinny'' sound and enhances bass performance of speakers and headphones. As a result, manufacturers of mobile or small devices can dramatically improve their product's audio performance without enlarging the speaker size.
About VIP
VIP (Voice Intelligibility Processor) is a patented, DSP-based voice technology with a very small footprint. It is compatible with any other voice-related technology including echo and noise cancellation processes. It provides remarkable improvements in speech intelligibility, especially in environments with high levels of ambient noise or if the speaker does not articulate well. VIP works by selectively augmenting speech formants with minimal increase to the overall Signal Pressure Level (SPL). By carefully refining the portion of human speech that is responsible for real cognition, VIP provides dramatic enhancements to the intelligibility of the spoken word. VIP is particularly effective in portable products that are frequently used by consumers in noisy environments such as airports, city streets, and sports stadiums providing significant improvement to voice intelligibility and voice quality on cellular phones, hands-free devices, digital voice recorders, text- to-speech engines, Internet telephony and other voice communication applications.
To learn more about licensing SRS Labs' WOW or VIP technologies contact the SRS Labs sales department at (949) 442-1070 or email sales@srslabs.com.
About the TI Third Party Network
The TI TMS320(TM) third-party program is the most extensive collection of global DSP development support in the industry, with more than 400 independent companies and consultants providing TI's customers with a broad range of application software, development hardware and software and consulting services. For more information on the TI third party program, please visit www.dspvillage.ti.com.
About SRS Labs, Inc.
SRS Labs is the world's leading provider of audio and voice enhancement technology solutions. SRS Labs' business consists of licensing audio and voice technologies to manufacturers of consumer electronics, telecommunications equipment, game developers, and wireless and cellular phone manufacturers and also markets products for semi-pro and professional audio signal processing. The Company's Hong Kong-based subsidiary, ValenceTech is a fabless award-winning leader in the design, manufacturing and distribution of components, integrated circuits, and sub-assemblies. The Company's subsidiary, SRSWOWcast Technologies, licenses audio and voice technologies for broadcasting and Internet streaming. For more information, visit http://www.srslabs.com.
SRS, WOW, VIP and the SRS symbol are registered trademarks of SRS Labs, Inc.
For further information, please contact Joanna Skrdlant, Director of Marketing of SRS Labs, Inc., 949-442-1070, ext. 5138, joannas@srslabs.com; or Tila Pacheco of TilaPR - Media Relations, 714-256-8452, tilap@concentric.net, for SRS Labs, Inc.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010515/latu060.html
Treos shipping...
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=676605
By: ChasingtheDream $$$$
Reply To: None Friday, 11 May 2001 at 12:25 PM EDT
Post #676605 of 676618
Treo update : Just talked to HS and the first 60 players ordered came in wednesday and shipped out yesterday so they will be in the hands of those people who were on the list of backorder by monday or tuesday. They will be receiving 40 on next friday so get your order in quick because all 60 this week were taken hope they didn't go to just shareholders.
The guy I talked to at best buy says the players always start in the magazines first and arrive in his store about 2 months after that which should be june since the first sighting was in april. I myself will wait for the voice commanded treo have to many CD's to search for them manualy. I hope people don't find out about that one they all may wait too.
This is gonna be a hot item and one to have, good luck everyone it's all coming together now.
Chasing
Eiger DataPlay player
(found by johnqlaw at RB, http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=676583 )
http://www.eigernet.co.kr/products/mp3/d100.htm
from Murgirl re Eastech:
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=676522
DataPlay analyzer specs:
http://www.data-transit.com/pub/datasheetdataplay.pdf
In the Storage Race, Will Consumers Win?
By MICHEL MARRIOTT April 5, 2001
Cradled in a hand, the shiny disc, encased in a sliver of clear plastic roughly the size of a half-dollar, suggests an artifact left behind by some flying saucer.
But the disc is the chief product of a two-year-old company called DataPlay, based in Boulder, Colo. The optical discs, known as DataPlay digital media, can store up to 500 megabytes of data, almost as much as a standard compact disc. The company plans to start selling them later this year for about $10 apiece. It hopes that the discs will become more commonplace than CD's, finding their way into an ever-expanding world of digital music players, digital cameras and camcorders, personal organizers, e- book readers and the like.
There is just one problem. A DataPlay disc can be read only by a device that has a special DataPlay reader. And a DataPlay reader cannot read any other kind of media.
With the introduction of DataPlay discs, yet another innovation in digital storage that its makers say will make practically everything that came before it obsolete, the types of storage consumers may turn to for digital music, pictures, video, games and data grows ever more crowded and confusing.
Consumers already face a maddening array of removable storage products. They come in different shapes, sizes and capacities, like Compact Flash; SmartMedia; Sony Memory Stick and MiniDisc; Iomega's Zip, Jaz and Pocket Zip; CD-ROM; CD-R; CD-RW; DVD-RAM; DVD-R; DVD- RW; the I.B.M. Microdrive; the Imation SuperDisk; and a range of tape-based systems with very high capacity.
Some of these products spin; others are solid state. Some use magnetic technology; others are optical. They have a wide range of prices, although, as with computer products in general, prices are falling. And like the DataPlay disc, they are largely incompatible with one another.
While some of these products are more popular than others, many experts say that there is no clear winner yet in this crowded field of removable storage formats. But the marketplace will not long tolerate such a wide offering digital storage products.
There has to be a shakeout, analysts say. That could mean that the $1,000 digital camera that saves its high- resolution pictures on one type of storage medium today may be useless tomorrow if the storage medium becomes outmoded and is replaced by something the camera was never designed to use. Remember Sony's Betamax videotapes and players?
"Clearly, one, maybe two formats will have to remain, but right now it's hard to say which is going to be the right format," said Bruce Kasrel, a senior analyst for media and entertainment at Forrester Research, a group in Cambridge, Mass., that analyzes the future of technologies. "Eventually one will bubble up that will have the price and performance and licensing strategy that can get them in all kinds of devices."
In terms of universality, there is not yet a clear successor to the 3 1/2-inch diskette, the creaky but dependable mainstay of storage media designed for personal computers. For well over a decade, practically every laptop and personal computer has come equipped with a slot that accepted the low-cost diskette, making it easy to exchange information between computers, although slowly and, at only 1.44 megabytes per disk, rather tediously.
Douglas R. Kraul, the chief technology officer for SmartDisk, a company that makes adaptive devices that help consumers use lots of different kinds of storage media, said that a dominant storage technology usually arose because there were one or two high-volume applications. In the case of the 3 1/2-inch diskette, the decision by computer makers to include 3 1/2-inch drives in their machines in the late 1980's was crucial. When home and office computer sales soared in the 1990's, 3 1/2-inch diskettes became almost as common as wire clothes hangers.
But executives at Sony Electronics are not waiting for such high-volume applications to arise. Rather, they are spreading their removable storage product, called Memory Stick, across many applications.
In the nearly two years since Memory Stick was created, Sony has made the product essential to linking a broad family of its devices together, from its VAIO desktop and laptop computers, to its Clié hand-held organizers, camcorders, portable music players and in-dash car navigation systems. Even its newest Aibo robot dog uses Memory Stick.
Sony officials say that Sony has 48 types of products on the market that use Memory Stick and has sold nine million products that have Memory Stick slots in them.
Yet outside the Sony world, Memory Sticks are anything but ubiquitous. Even though Sony said it would encourage other companies to build devices using the technology, few such products have been released.
Memory Stick is only one format for solid-state flash memory; others include SDMI Secure Digital Cards, MultiMediaCards and SmartMedia Cards. Flash memory is used in the widest variety of portable digital devices, including cameras, audio players, cellular telephones and hand- held computers.
Dr. Eli Harari, president and chief executive of SanDisk Corporation, a major maker of flash memory cards in Sunnyvale, Calif., said that as portable digital devices continued to be developed and to proliferate, the future for portable data storage media companies like his could not be anything but bright.
"The desktop personal computer market is very mature," Dr. Harari said, while the market for portable digital devices is still growing.
The benefit to consumers, he said, is that as makers of storage media strive to meet an explosive demand, prices will fall. That is especially significant, he said, for flash memory, which has cost more per megabyte than spinning optical discs, like the much larger, and more familiar, five-inch recordable CD's and DVD's.
A re-writable DVD-RAM, for instance, can easily hold 5,200 megabytes of digital information for little more than $30, while a CompactFlash card with about a tenth the capacity costs about $1,000.
With the economies of scale and improved manufacturing techniques, flash memory is destined to drop steadily in price, Dr. Harari said. Like the microprocessors at the heart of personal computers, flash memory is also subject to Moore's law, experts say. That means that flash memory's capacity should double about every 18 months.
Examples of that are already beginning to be seen, Dr. Harari said. A 64-megabyte CompactFlash card that sold for $149 a year ago is showing up in some stores for about $100. Dr. Harari said he was sure that in the next several years, similar memory cards would cost no more than $20.
Such cost reductions in storage media will spur an explosive growth in devices like portable audio players, he said. Today's music players commonly cost $200 to $300, and half to a third of that cost is attributed to the price of the flash memory.
Some experts contend that flash memory and other related chip- based media have much in their favor. One of their chief advantages is that they do not require, as DataPlay discs do, a relatively costly player that must be installed in a device so the disc can be read.
Because flash memory does not require moving parts to be read, some experts say they believe that flash will win the race for a universal storage medium.
But even with flash memory, the types and formats still confuse many consumers, some managers of consumer electronics stores said in recent interviews. Sandisk alone makes PCMCIA FlashDisks, CompactFlash Disks, MultiMedia Cards, Secure Digital cards and more.
"All the flash stuff is all the same stuff, just repackaged," said Steve Volk, the founder and chief executive of DataPlay, who recently announced that he had struck deals with major record companies to also sell recorded music on the DataPlay disc. "None of the flash stuff is suitable for pre-recorded content."
But critics of optical data storage media like DataPlay's and all recordable CD's and DVD's say that because such media must spin at high speeds, they are more prone to skipping and other mechanical problems. They also consume more power, which reduces battery life.
Optical-based storage is also, some critics say, much more costly for device makers because they must build in the mechanical means to play and read the discs. (The same is true, Dr. Harari said, for any mechanical shortage device, like the I.B.M. Microdrive, which is a tiny hard drive.)
Before a DataPlay disc can work, a device must be built with a DataPlay micro-optical engine, which is about the size of a matchbox. Such an engine, said Mr. Kasrel, of Forrester Research, adds to the cost, size and complexity of the device. Solid-state memory cards have no moving parts, and none are required to read them.
In the end, Mr. Kasrel said, increasing capacity is not going to mean very much to many consumers if the price of storage does not fall drastically as well.
For most consumers, he said, simply getting more digital storage is much like going from a few television channels to hundreds but still not being able to find anything interesting to watch.
What the makers of removable storage devices really need to be able to do, he said, "is to have something very small, with lots of memory, that is so cheap that you could almost throw it away."
That, even the most ardent believers in Moore's law agree, may take awhile.
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
OT: Small Things Come In Lossy Packages
http://www.seneschal.net/papers/bitstream/bstream01/bstream01.htm
This column discusses lossy codecs for low data rate delivery
Editor's Note: Welcome to "The Bitstream," Mix's new monthly column focused on computer-based audio technologies. Penned by noted media consultant Oliver Masciarotte, "The Bitstream" will cover a wide variety of topics ranging from DVD, the Internet, new computer platforms, storage and distribution issues, to networking, software and more, all with a futuristic, yet practical slant. If you have ideas, insights or input for future topics, contact us at mixeditorial@intertec.com. We'll be listening.
It's no surprise to most of us that, by adopting digital acquisition, processing and distribution, we've settled for audio that is audibly degraded relative to its analog antecedents. Emerging acquisition standards, such as high-resolution PCM and DSD, have brought back the easy listening of analog to digital audio. While discriminating engineers sweat the details during production, distributing the finished product is another matter entirely.
Distribution, until recently, dictated degraded quality. Take Justin the Freshman. He's quite happy listening to MP3's "near-CD quality" just as his forefathers were quite satisfied with their hideous 8 track tapes. Since today's distribution hot button is the net, something's gotta go when Justin’s lucky to have 56 kbaud. Whether its telecom, broadcast or optical delivery, there's usually not much bandwidth available for our audio data. We can't all afford xDSL just yet, but we can use some discrimination when the client asks us to "make it fit."
The search for ways to stuff audio through pitifully puny pipes started with short-word-length PCM, ADPCM and IMA, and advanced to the current quagmire of "standards," MPEG-1 Layer III (MP3), RealSystem G2 and QuickTime 3 (QT3) — all of which share the ability to take PCM source files and squeeze out the inherently redundant data, resulting in a smaller file that usually sounds acceptable. "Sounds acceptable?" Now that's being polite. But, all is not lost. Of late, corporate brain trusts have been coming up with new, widely deployed codecs that actually sound good!
Restricted carrying capacity certainly isn't new. Born in the Analog Era, there are several bandwidth–challenged analog standards you may recognize: NTSC and PAL television, AM/FM radio and pre-digital Plain Ol’ Telephone Service (POTS). Those standards relied on peculiarities of the human perceptual system to deliver just enough information to convey a message over a channel with less than full bandwidth.
Current distribution channels for digital audio, from satellite TV to CD-ROM, are largely supporting lossy codecs for the same reason. Some examples:
DVD-V, along with LPCM, has optional support for DTS, MPEG and AC-3. DVD-V was the first distribution format with support for 96/24. An audiophile somewhere was persistent enough to improve upon the "perfect sound forever" of 44.1/16. Certainly a "professional" audio engineer wouldn't have suggested such a thing. Most are perfectly happy with the crappy audio quality that we hear every day from gear with "pro" labels. Thank the Gods that someone in the pro world listens to acoustic music once in a while, otherwise DVD-A and SACD wouldn't have been proposed.
Cinema sound is brought to you via Dolby Digital (AC-3), Digital Theater Systems, Inc. (DTS) or Sony's 8-channel Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS), which uses a professional version of the same Audio Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC) algorithm used by MiniDisc.
Digital radio services, known as Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB), use various schemes, including Lucent's Perceptual Audio Coder (PAC), ISO/MPEG Layer II, MPEG-4 or Musicam (Masking Pattern Universal Sub-band Integrated Coding Multiplexing) — the codec of choice for good ol’ ISDN phone patches.
North American digital television uses — you guessed it — AC-3. No wonder Dolby Labs has been busy hiring in its licensing division.
The hairball of standards that is the Web has its own collection. Microsoft's Windows Media format (WMA), the standard for that company's extensive Active Streaming Format (ASF), and Version 2 of the QDesign codec (QDMC) used in the fabulous, open source QuickTime 4 are examples of audio mechanisms for the most popular computer operating systems. The SDMI distribution system for secure music purchases supports WMA, MP3, MPEG-2 AAC and Lucent's Enhanced PAC (ePAC). Liquid Audio's open, multiformat approach doesn't play OS favorites. It supports AAC, AC-3 and MP3.
All of the codecs mentioned above are classed as perceptual coders. Though invented in the late 1980s at Bell Laboratories, these algorithms have continued to morph just as Bell Labs has morphed into Lucent after the breakup. Engineers at Dolby, QDesign, Lucent and the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (FgH) among others, have thrown every trick in their multidisciplinary book at the development of modern versions. The algorithms these companies developed, as in the analog days of yore, provide bit rate reduction without compromising perceived fidelity. The sidebar shows some features of the low-data-rate king, QDMC v2, and the high-rate winner, ePAC, along with AAC. ePAC, is a highly refined dark horse with the power of Lucent behind it. MP3 is included for reference only as its old-school performance is considerably poorer than the other three.
Codec Stereo or Multichan. Sample & Bit Rate Comments*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AAC multichannel 96 k SR, 8-128 kbps/ch royalties
ePAC multichannel 44.1 k SR, 8-256 kbps/ch HTTP & Real G2 streaming, IIPP
QDMC v2 multichannel 48 k SR, 8-128 kbps/ch >HTTP & RTSP streaming, IIPP
WMA stereo 48 k SR, 5-160 kbps/ch HTTP & MMS streaming, IIPP
MP3 stereo ? SR, 32-320 kbps/ch royalties
* (Comments) - IIPP stands for integrated intellectual property protection mechanisms such as watermarking and encryption. Also, WMA is not a codec but is a framework for several specialized codecs.
How do perceptual encoders work? Let's look at AAC, as its not cloaked in secrecy like QDMC and ePAC. Both ePAC and MPEG-2 Advanced Audio Coding incorporate algorithms from Lucent's PAC, dating from 1992. AAC is one of the codecs of the MPEG-2 standard and is a subset of MPEG-4, the new unified family of ISO standards for delivery of rich media. Major contributors included the FgH, AT&T, Dolby and Sony.
As with other offerings, AAC employs perceptual subband/transform coding, whereby the signal is first transformed from the time domain into the frequency domain using a variable window or block length. The encoder then applies a psychoacoustic model to estimate whether, in any particular band of frequencies, the signal strength is above or below the perceptual threshold relative to the adjacent bands. If the signal is above the masking threshold, a spectral coefficient or value is generated to represent the signal in that band. Masking threshold means the amplitude threshold below which a spectral component will be "hidden" or masked by louder components at frequencies nearby. Its a brain thing, just go with it. Once all the valid coefficients are determined, AAC applies additional mechanisms to enhance coding efficiency, including: joint coding, which removes monaural redundancy in a stereo signal; temporal noise shaping prediction, which distributes quantization noise over time; and lossless Huffman coding.
You can be sure that lossy codecs won't be going away anytime soon, based on the proliferation of terrestrial (and satellite) distribution of rich media, the emergence of solid-state personal stereos and record labels—large and small—betting on a hybrid revenue model of on–site advertising with the enticement of free track downloads. So, when a project comes knocking that allows your input, do what you're paid for. Use your ears first, then make an educated choice from the new codec menu. To help you get a feel for which one is appropriate, I've posted sample files on my site for your evaluation. Stop by www.seneschal.net and follow the Papers & Articles link to take a listen (see below).
Though I've written for Mix as far back as 1987, "The Bitstream" is my first column for this magazine. I'll try to provoke some thought about the technological foundation for our industry and answer questions you may or should have. The conflux of audio and computers forms the basis for discussion and there's plenty out there to cover. I'll also, on occasion, wander into other subject areas while eluding my editors. Let me know, at bitstream@seneschal.net, what technology issues (or great MP3 links! - om ) interest you; it may show up in months to come!
by Oliver Masciarotte
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bio — Oliver Masciarotte is an audio craftsmensch and new-media consultant. He recently returned from Japan where he worked to bring up a new, integrated DVD-A/V installation for Prime Mix/Tokyo and the HMC.
Details on STM/DataPlay chips:
http://us.st.com/stonline/press/news/year2001/t922d.htm
http://www.eu.st.com/stonline/prodpres/dedicate/datastor/optd/yukon/yukon.htm
http://www.eu.st.com/stonline/prodpres/dedicate/datastor/optd/indus/indus.htm
Per a reliable source, EDIG is not involved in these chips.
DataPlay sighting:
http://www.amaxhk.com/products/napa/dp600/dp600.htm
Giants email from Robert at RB:
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=676116
...somewhat canned responses to my questions. Canned can be good. My general feeling is if we can 50% of these pending products/projects we will be doing just fine.
my email:
Hello all,
Been a while since I have emailed in and since we haven't heard much about any progress that may
be happening, I am getting the feeling things are not progressing as previously stated. For one the
Treo is no where to be found: This link disturbs me:
http://hardware.dmusic.com/details.php?id=169
For what I remembered the Treo was scheduled to be available in March.
Question #1: is, how close are we to getting the Treo in the hand of the consumers?
Question #2: how many revenue baring products for EDIG will be available by the end
of 2001. There has been expectations to have products on the shelves by
Christmas 99 and Christmas 00. Now with content becoming available should I
as a shareholder expect a product/products available for Christmas 01?
Question #3: What is EDIG's long term plan to re-apply for a Nasdaq listing?
Question #4: How is the relationship with Dataplay progressing? Do we have
Engineers working with Dataplay, Samsung, and Toshiba Engineers?
Question #5: Are there any plans to hire additional Engineers in 2001 / 2002?
Robert, I do have other questions, but I think I could spend a fair amount of time chewing on the results of
the questions that I asked.
Thanks,
Nick
----------------------------------------------------
EDIG's response:
Hi, Nick,
With the next generation of consumer electronics product just beginning to
come out, we believe we have positioned e.Digital in the mainstream of
opportunity with our technology, standards support, product platforms, OEM
partners and customers, and business model. With the assistance of
Fleishman Hillard, we are coordinating our efforts with our OEM customers
and their public relations staffs in preparing and disseminating
announcements and information. While the exact timeframes of announcements
and product availability are mainly controlled by our OEM customers, we
expect developments based on our HDD-based portable digital jukebox
platform, DataPlay-enabled devices and other platforms to be announced.
Specifically, based on current information provided by our OEM customers
and OEM licensees, we anticipate availability of consumer products based on
our HDD-based digital jukebox platform in retail distribution channels this
quarter.
Samsung, Toshiba and other OEM customers are expected to market
DataPlay-based, e.Digital-enabled devices later this year when DataPlay's
optical storage technology is scheduled to become widely available. We
expect more information regarding these developments to be forthcoming.
We have dedicated strategic engineering resources to the development and
implementation of new product platforms that include digital video for
portable devices, automotive and home stereo designs, cellular phone
accessories, and set-top boxes. We are working with multiple OEMs on
specific applications of these MicroOS- and MicroCAM-powered platforms for
inclusion in a variety of branded products.
We currently meet or exceed the Nasdaq listing criteria save for the
minimum bid price. We expect to address this requirement through the
introduction and market acceptance of our OEM's e.Digital-enabled products,
further announcements from new and current OEM customers and partners and
expected increasing revenue. We continue to hire engineers and related
talent based on our current and expected business. Please e-mail me or
call me on my direct line at 858.679.3168 if I can be of further
assistance.
Best regards,
Robert Putnam
Senior Vice President
e.Digital Corporation
13114 Evening Creek Dr. S.
San Diego, CA 92128
http://www.edig.com
Phone: (858) 679-3168
Fax: (858) 486-3922
robert@edig.com
Endomatic, bear in mind that GlobalSources is a Taiwanese site; their use of 'exclusive' is meant to convey 'USA excluded'. I have read elsewhere that the ET700 will not be sold in the US. Haven't heard anything from Hammacher myself - I suppose that Logline's info is as good as any other I've seen lately. I don't have an order in with them, so I'm not inclined to tie up their phone.
OT: Bose Introduces Interactive PC Audio System
New Way to Listen to Music by Computer
FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE FEATURES)--May 10, 2001-- Converge on this: Bose Corporation has introduced a new compact music system that connects to a personal computer for one-touch access to Internet radio, digital audio files, AM/FM radio and compact discs.
The Bose Wave/PC interactive system takes ``convergence'' to a new level, with superb audio performance and surprising ease-of-use via intuitive controls and a credit-card sized remote.
It is the next step in computer audio evolution. So much more than just a workstation, today's PC is where people go to talk to friends, keep up with news and sports, play games, shop, and now, organize and enjoy their music.
From MP3 to the BBC
Any computer owner familiar with Windows operating systems can use the Wave/PC system to listen to AM/FM and Internet radio stations, play and record CDs onto the PC's hard disk, organize and play music downloaded from the Internet, and create personal music lists.
``We've made it simple for the user,'' said Rob Brown, Manager of Bose Integrated Systems Product Marketing. ``People spend a lot of time at their computers these days. The Wave/PC system makes it easy for them to listen to music there, and access digital audio as they explore the musical side of the Internet -- without grappling with multiple devices and programs.''
Consistent with Dr. Amar Bose's goal to create products that combine high technology with ease of use and small size, the Wave/PC system also reproduces sound beautifully, thanks to patented Bose acoustic waveguide speaker technology.
Listen Globally, Live Locally
How would the typical PC user, or, say, you, work with this new system?
For starters, just enter your zip code. The Wave/PC system will download information about radio stations in your area, often including type of programming. Create your own list of favorites, and with a click of the mouse you can change stations. Or drag and drop them to presets instantly accessible with one touch of a button on the remote. For many stations you can even jump directly from its listing on the Wave/PC control panel to its Web site.
Looking to broaden your radio horizons? The Wave/PC system lets you listen to programs from around the world via Web radio broadcasts in Real Audio (RNWK) format. In fact, out of the box, it offers hundreds of international stations as easily as local ones, and enables you to preset and access them directly from the remote.
Want the newest music on MP3? Download and save music from the Internet, and let the Wave/PC system automatically find and organize it for you.
Now Try This
Insert a music CD into your computer's CD-ROM drive. Wave/PC audio system logs onto the Internet and automatically downloads information including artist names and track titles and makes this information instantly accessible the next time you play the CD.
Certain songs you really like? Select tracks or the complete CD for storage on your computer hard drive. In the mood to hear all of your jazz tracks? The Wave/PC software can sort the music by type, composer, artist, album or track. Just want to hear that song with ``Tonight'' in the title? You can quick search your entire music collection by keyword. Create your own playlists. Even assign playlists, music types, or artists to presets for instant access via the remote control.
Can't Help Thinking About Tomorrow
Although there are more features to the Wave/PC system than can be conveniently listed in a press release, one of the most refreshing is lack of obsolescence. When enhancements and new features to the programming software are available, they will be delivered to Wave/PC system owners via the Internet.
The Bose Wave/PC system takes up less desk space than a laptop, and weighs only seven pounds.
OT: The age of erasable hardware
By Dean Takahashi
Red Herring
May 9, 2001
http://www.redherring.com/index.asp?layout=story&channel=10000001&doc_id=880019288
This article appears in the May 1 and 15, 2001, issue of Red Herring magazine.
One day, someone will make a chip that does everything for the ultimate consumer device. The chip will be smart enough to be the brains of a cell phone that can transmit or receive calls anywhere in the world. If the reception is poor, the phone will automatically adjust so that the quality improves. At the same time, the device will also serve as a handheld organizer and a player for music, videos, or games.
Unfortunately, that chip doesn't exist today. It would require flexibility, high performance, low power, and low cost, and it would need to get to the market quickly, before the multiple features it supports become outdated. Today, designing such a chip crosses too many architectural boundaries in the rigid rules of silicon. Every engineer knows that chip design involves trade-offs. And so far, nobody has figured out a way to get a chip to meet all the criteria for the ultimate consumer device.
But we might be getting closer. Now a new kind of chip may reshape the semiconductor landscape. The chip adapts to any programming task by effectively erasing its hardware design and regenerating new hardware that is perfectly suited to run the software at hand. These chips, referred to as reconfigurable processors, could tilt the balance of power that has preserved a decade-long standoff between programmable chips and hard-wired custom chips. These new chips are able to rewire themselves on the fly to create the exact hardware needed to run a piece of software at the utmost speed.
Reconfigurable computing goes a step beyond programmable chips in the matter of flexibility. It is not only possible but relatively commonplace to "rewrite" the silicon so that it can perform new functions in a split second. Reconfigurable chips are simply the extreme end of programmability.
If these adaptable chips can reach a cost-performance parity with hard-wired chips, customers will chuck the static hard-wired solutions. And if silicon can indeed become dynamic, then so will the gadgets of the information age. No longer will you have to buy a camera and a tape recorder. You could just buy one gadget, and then download a new function for it when you want to take some pictures or make a recording. Just think of the possibilities for the fickle consumer. Those possibilities might be available within the next year.
"We call it providing a chip on demand," says Charles Fox, president and CEO of Chameleon Systems in San Jose, California, a maker of reconfigurable chips that could streamline and add a degree of flexibility to wireless infrastructure.
CHIP TIDE
Hard-wired custom chips, the fastest but least flexible chips, are a $17 billion industry dominated by companies like LSI Logic (NYSE: LSI). Digital signal processors (DSPs) -- high-performance programmable chips that proliferate in such disparate places as cell phones, automobiles, and music players -- comprise a $6.1 billion market led by Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN). Programmable logic chips, which are arrays of memory cells that can be programmed to perform hardware functions using software tools, are more flexible than DSP chips but slower and more expensive. They make up a $7.4 billion market led by Xilinx (Nasdaq: XLNX) and Altera (Nasdaq: ALTR), both of San Jose. Will Strauss, president and founder of Forward Concepts, a market research firm in Tempe, Arizona, thinks reconfigurables will nibble away at each of those markets and grow from $330 million in 2000 to $1.3 billion in 2004.
"In theory, these reconfigurable chips are pretty ideal," says Mr. Strauss. "If there is an easier way of doing the same thing here, then big companies are in trouble. The reconfigurables are starting in the wireless space, and they should expand from there."
Reconfigurable computing is no slam dunk. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon's central research agency, poured $125 million into reconfigurable computing eight years ago and has little to show for it. It takes careful scheduling for the chip to configure the hardware on exactly the right timetable to keep the software from stalling. And no one has been taught to program this way.
"Reconfigurability is not just a chip problem," admits Jaime Cummins, cofounder, president, and CEO of QuickSilver Technology, a San Jose maker of reconfigurable chips for mobile handsets and one of Red Herring's "Ten to watch" this year. "It's also a tools problem, and it takes years to do the tools right. That's one of the reasons it's been a hard problem for a decade."
Several startups in reconfigurable computing have chosen the next-generation wireless market as the key battleground. Besides QuickSilver and Chameleon, Morphics Technology in Campbell, California, is also targeting the wireless market. One sign that the technology might have a promising future: Broadcom (Nasdaq: BRCM) last year ponied up $1 billion to buy reconfigurable chip startup Silicon Spice.
But such DSP makers as Texas Instruments aren't quite ready to give up this key market. TI contends it can improve its DSPs at a fast enough rate to provide the combination of speed and flexibility that universal cell phones will require (see "Texas changers"). Moreover, TI executive vice president and chief operating officer Richard Templeton contends that his company's chips are designed to accommodate many more applications than reconfigurables.
TIME FOR A CHANGE
Inertia might be the worst problem facing reconfigurable computing. Engineers are slow to change, and they're comfortable designing things the old way, which offered them a spectrum of programmable or hard-wired options. Indeed, there are more than two dozen existing microprocessor architectures, and it isn't clear how many more will be needed in the communications or consumer electronics markets. Already the makers of programmable logic chips say they fill the demand for flexible chips, if people are willing to wait 100 milliseconds to change applications, says Wallace Westfeldt, a product manager at Xilinx. Adds Pat Gelsinger, vice president and chief technology officer at Intel (Nasdaq: INTC): "We don't see the need for that much flexibility."
But Internet time has changed everything, and all chip makers are trying to change with the times. Life cycles for products like digital cameras now are as short as six months. As a result, time to market matters more than ever. Custom chip makers, who usually are burdened with the longest lead time, are working on hybrids that make their chips more flexible. Meanwhile, programmable chip makers are shooting for higher performance.
Programmable logic chips from Altera and Xilinx now offer millions of gates -- the basic logic building blocks of chips that consist of multiple transistors -- at $10 per chip, thanks to advances in semiconductor miniaturization, enabling those chips to catch up with the vast majority of hard-wired custom chips. Even hard-wired custom chips, made by companies like LSI Logic, with features written in stone, now offer limited degrees of programmability. A host of startups, from Triscend in Mountain View, California, to Tensilica in Santa Clara, have begun to deploy "configurable" microprocessors, which users can quickly modify for their own needs. But the degree of flexibility in these chips is limited. The result, says Mr. Fox, is that "all the different types of chip makers will converge on the same battleground."
Big companies from Dell Computer (Nasdaq: DELL) to Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) have made bets on the startups -- both have invested in Morphics's recent $60 million round. Four major telecommunications companies are testing the Chameleon chips now and could deploy them in 2002. That prospect helped the company raise a round of $47 million in venture capital from 3i Group and others that gave it a post-money valuation of $220 million. For its part, QuickSilver has raised $20 million and is seeking additional funding.
"I think all of the signs are clear that reconfigurable chips will spell trouble for the hard-wired companies," says Vinod Dham, who runs the Silicon Spice division of Broadcom.
CHIP SHOT
Reconfigurable chips are a long-shot technology to some, but even the less-radical programmable chips are gaining ground on custom chips. Atiq Raza, founder, chairman, and CEO of Raza Foundries in San Jose, says that hard-wired chips can still feature the highest performance and therefore will be needed for years in the performance-crazy network core. But he anticipates programmable chips breaking into the "edge" where consumers wire into the network.
In the broadest scheme, programmability has been moving into many semiconductor markets. Custom chips are being replaced with programmable "network processors" made by dozens of new startups who argue that programmability is a must because processing protocols and standards are changing so often. Nvidia's (Nasdaq: NVDA) newest graphics chips shifted from hard-wired to a programmable architecture. So-called "media processors," which can process multiple types of data from sound to video, are making a comeback, and Transmeta (Nasdaq: TMTA) has designed a microprocessor that can adapt to the program at hand and thereby conserve battery life in a laptop.
Fans of reconfigurability, like Nick Tredennick, a technical adviser to QuickSilver and editor of the Dynamic Silicon newsletter for Gilder Publishing, foresee reconfigurable chips "invading everything that today hosts a DSP or a microprocessor." For consumers, this means that the day isn't far away when a cell phone can be used to talk, transmit video images, connect to the Internet, maintain a calendar, and serve as entertainment during travel delays -- without the need to plug in adapter hardware. QuickSilver plans to begin shipping such chips to cellular phone makers late this year or early next year.
Mr. Cummins calls his company's reconfigurable chip an "adaptive computing machine" (ACM), a kind of programmable logic device with hardware that can be rewritten hundreds of times a second. It has two parts: one that serves as a quickly accessible library, or cache, for hardware components, and another that is like a blank chalkboard.
As needed, the chip takes a hardware component from the library and slaps it into the blank chalkboard. There, the component executes the software running at the moment. When it's finished, the hardware component is erased and a new component is slapped in to process the next piece of software. It takes complex scheduling to map the right piece of hardware into the chalkboard at exactly the right time. But the advantages are potentially huge.
The chip can be smaller because its chalkboard allows it to fetch hardware components from memory, meaning that it doesn't use valuable chip area to store the entire library of hardware components, as a microprocessor does. Without such a chalkboard, a microprocessor has the whole library in place and drawing electricity at all times, even though only 1 to 5 percent is being used at any given time.
By contrast, a QuickSilver chip uses only the piece of hardware that it needs at any one time, and it uses power only for the active function. As an example, if the QuickSilver system needs to process a video image, the chip will tap its hardware library for video-processing components. In a split second it will put the components onto the blank chalkboard. And the hardware will be ready to process the software as it arrives for execution. When the video processing is done and 3D-graphics components are needed, the chip erases the chalkboard, returns the video-processing components to the library, and then pulls out 3D-processing components and puts them on the chalkboard.
Mr. Cummins estimates that an ACM will be able to process data as fast as a custom chip, and 10 or 100 times faster than a DSP, with just a tenth of the power and at a twentieth of the size. That translates into savings on battery life and lower chip costs. The overall performance of the ACM can surpass the DSP because the ACM only constructs the actual hardware needed to execute the software, whereas DSPs and microprocessors force the software to fit its given architecture.
A universal cell phone could certainly use the QuickSilver chip's features. So could a high-end, multifunction personal digital assistant, as well as any of the so-called information appliances that make it simple to hook up to the Internet. But whether designers will use these chips will depend on a lot of things.
Execution will determine whether QuickSilver or others will lead the pack in reconfigurable computing. Rivals at Xilinx and Altera are working on their own reconfigurable technologies. Mr. Cummins believes his company has the right hardware architecture to make chips with as few transistors as possible, compared to his rivals.
Even if QuickSilver, Morphics, Silicon Spice, or Chameleon don't surmount the obstacles as they try to create a new computing infrastructure, they will certainly force the entire chip industry to rethink its strategy and assumptions.
"The dinosaurs of the chip industry dominate the scene now," says chip veteran Gordon Campbell, founder and general partner of incubator TechFarm in Mountain View, which backed QuickSilver. "But there is this new mammal out there, the reconfigurable processor, and the question is whether the dinosaurs are going to adapt."
That all depends on whether the reconfigurable crowd can field its products faster than the dinosaur crowd can breed its next generation of chips.
Courtesy of D.inkie:
http://www.calweb.com/~doncheri/Launch.htm
Per the GlobalSources website, both the ET700 and ET701 are now slated for July availability. The ET700 will not be sold in the US.
http://www.globalsources.com/GeneralManager?&design=clean&language=en&action=GetSupplier...
The Future Of Burning
Smaller, Faster & Cheaper
http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles%2Farchive%2Fg0905%2F07g05%2F07g...
Compact disc technology has become perhaps the world’s most commonly used technology for storing removable data. Music and other types of audio are now sold almost exclusively on CD-ROM discs. These discs are the medium of choice for delivering software to your computer. You probably already know the benefits of burning, or creating, personal CDs if you have a CD-R (CD-recordable) or CD-RW (CD-rewriteable) drive in your system.
While CD optical technology is king for now, we all know it won’t always be on top. Some day even CDs will seem as ancient as the common 3.5-inch floppy diskette or an eight-track tape. (We’re sorry to break this to you, but your old eight-track copy of Grand Funk Railroad isn’t cutting edge anymore.)
If you’re looking for the next great optical storage medium, your first thought probably would be with DVD (digital versatile disc). That’s a good choice; DVD players and DVD drives are quickly growing in popularity, thanks to the ability of DVD discs to store at least seven times more data than 650MB CD-ROMs.
We find that even as DVD moves toward becoming the most popular optical storage medium, its days are also numbered. Other types of removable storage are still in the development stage, but they could ascend to the throne in just a few years.
Fluorescent Technology. In CD technology, as it applies to CD-ROM and writeable CDs, the data is stored just under the surface of the CD in a single layer. In DVD technology, the data is stored more compactly on one or two layers of the disc. CDs are limited to about 650MB of data, while single-layer DVDs can store from 4.7GB of data (or 4,700MB) up to 17GB.
A company called Constellation 3D uses a technology called fluorescent multi-layer to expand the ability of the disc to hold data. A fluorescent multi-layer disc, also called an FMD disc by Constellation 3D, stores data in multiple layers of the transparent FMD disc.
CD and DVD lenses use measurements of reflections from the optical discs to read their data. But, as you add layers to a CD or DVD disc, the signal created by the reflection is weakened and diffused; this leaves the lens unable to read the data properly. Fluorescent technology doesn’t use a reflection and this lets it read through multiple layers without a weakening of the signal.
Data is written to each layer on an FMD disc in a manner similar to a CD or DVD by using a series of microscopic holes burned into the material. (The mixture of holes, or pits, and unburned areas, or lands, represents the data). See "White Paper: CD & DVD Writing" for more detailed information.
Constellation 3D expects each layer of the FMD disc to hold about 4.7GB of data, similar to a single-layer DVD disc, but the similarities end there. Rather than the reflective layer used with a DVD disc, an FMD disc uses a transparent fluorescent material to coat each layer. When the laser from the lens strikes the data, it creates fluorescent light. A lens then reads the disc by measuring the fluorescent materials’ color and intensity. Through these measurements, the lens can decode the data properly, determining exactly which layer it is reading. The various layers don’t diffuse fluorescent light and this enables the drive to read the disc without disturbance. Fluorescent light also has a different wavelength than laser light, and this lets the drive filter out the laser light before it reads the data.
Manufacturers are building DataPlay drives, called micro-optical engines, into several different types of portable devices and will be available through a USB (Universal Serial Bus) connection for your computer. The tiny DataPlay discs are only slightly larger than a quarter.
By storing data in several layers—basically, in a three-dimensional format—far more data can be stored on an FMD disc that remains about the same physical size as a CD or DVD disc. You can think of an FMD disc as optical media containing a series of extremely thin storage shelves.
Constellation 3D anticipates up to 100 layers eventually could be used with the FMD discs. Constellation 3D estimates a single FMD disc could store more than 1TB (terabyte) in future years by using the correct combination of blue laser light (currently not feasible) and fluorescent technology. That’s equal to 1,000GB, or about 220 times the storage capacity of a single-layer DVD disc.
With FMD, data could be transferred much more quickly than with CD and DVD. FMD technology would allow for reading multiple layers simultaneously, and Constellation 3D estimates data could be transferred at almost 1GB per second.
Constellation 3D, which also is developing a credit card-sized device using FMD technology and designed for mobile devices, hopes the first FMD products will be available by mid-2002. Constellation 3D expects its first FMD discs to store about 100GB.
DataPlay. You’re probably already ready to explore the DataPlay digital media if you’ve wished you could carry your collection of favorite CDs in your pocket along with the collections of a few other friends. DataPlay is another seemingly futuristic storage option, giving you the ability to store up to 500MB of data (about three-fourths of the capacity of a CD) on a media disc only slightly larger than a quarter. (That’s a quarter, as in a 25-cent piece.)
DataPlay introduced its technology at the January 2001 Consumer Electronics Show. It had those in attendance buzzing, and with good reason. Obviously, the ability to store massive amounts of data on miniature discs could revolutionize several types of digital hardware devices. Potential uses for DataPlay media include many types of portable hardware uses, including handheld PDAs (personal digital assistants), audio players, digital cameras, video cameras, Web-enabled handhelds, and digital e-books.
Consumers could use the technology to create personal discs, or they could purchase mass-distributed DataPlay discs. In some instances, using a technology called ContentKey, consumers would purchase a prerecorded DataPlay disc containing a wide variety of data. To activate only the data desired, consumers would log onto the Internet and purchase a code to unlock the desired data from the DataPlay disc. This feature, for example, would allow an e-book publisher to publish dozens of titles on a single DataPlay disc; the consumer then would only pay for and activate specific titles.
The DataPlay disc, known as miniature optical media, is similar to a miniature DVD disc; it uses similar burning techniques to create the discs. You can burn each DataPlay disc in a DataPlay drive, called a micro-optical engine. All DataPlay drives, which are slightly larger than a matchbook, will have both reading and writing capabilities. The DataPlay drive should be able to write data to a DataPlay disc at speeds of up to 1MB per second.
DataPlay drives purchased for use with your computer will connect to your PC or Macintosh through the USB (Universal Serial Bus) port. You then can copy content from your computer to a DataPlay disc. DataPlay is also selling its micro-optical engines to makers of several types of digital hardware, such as PDAs or digital music players, for inclusion in their hardware devices.
You can only write to the DataPlay discs once, similar to a CD-R disc. DataPlay has indicated a rewriteable disc may be introduced in the future, though. We expect DataPlay discs and hardware devices to be available in the United States in mid- to late-2001, although some devices are already in use in Asia. One such device offers a variety of features, including functioning as a digital camera, MP3 player, cellular phone, and wireless Web browser. In the United States, each 500MB DataPlay disc should cost approximately $10, while a drive would cost around $150.
The Future. The technologies discussed above seem futuristic, but plans to improve on them have already been discussed. DataPlay, for example, hopes to further enhance its media in the next few years to allow for several gigabytes of data to be stored per disc. And in fluorescent technology, a Romanian scientist, Dr. Eugen Pavel, is discussing Hyper CD-ROM technology, which reportedly can hold up to 10TB of data on a single disc, while remaining similar in size to a CD-ROM disc (but about 10mm thick).
These aren’t the only high-capacity, removable storage options currently being developed, but they are the types generating the most excitement. We probably won’t know whether these or other technologies will actually enjoy widespread use for several years. No technology, no matter how promising, can enjoy wide deployment without the backing of hardware manufacturers and without a realistic price point for consumers. If Constellation 3D or DataPlay can achieve both of those points, they might be able to take their technologies to the king’s throne.
A little re DataPlay Singapore:
http://db2.jobstreet.com/jassist/preview.asp?advertiser_id=9564
Company Name : DataPlay Pte Ltd
Industry : Electrical & Electronics
Type of Company : Private Limited Company
CEO / MD : Quek Seow Cher
Company Location : Econ Building, #02-00, 2 Ang Mo Kio Street 64, Singapore 568084
Company Tel : 4828018
WebSite : www.dataplay.com
No. of Employees : 20
Overview
DataPlay,Inc. was incorporated in November 1998 to develop a Web-enabled digital content recording and distribution media for portable Internet appliances and hand-held consumer entertainment devices. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, the company employs more than 175 people in the United States, Japan and in Singapore. While the company maintains its headquarters in Boulder, Colo., Singapore will evolve into DataPlay’s operational headquarters to manage worldwide manufacturing and logistics activities, as well as Asian sales efforts. DataPlay’s existing 15-person workforce in Singapore will grow to about 120 people by year’s end, as a new OPU factory commences volume operations in July 2001. The OPU is the read and write component that is found on all optical drives, such as DVD and CD players. DataPlay has developed a breakthrough technology that allows a traditional OPU (about 2” x 2”) to be compressed to the size of a matchstick head.
Product and Services
Our consumer products include:
a) DataPlay digital media in 250MB and 500 MB capacities
b) DataPlay USB player/recorder for Windows 2000 and MacOS computers
Our industry products include:
a)DataPlay digital media for pre-recorded content distribution and private label blank media sales
b)DataPlay engines for easy integration in 3rd party digital devices
c)ContentKeyTM e-commerce and promotional tools for innovative new methods of expanding content sales and brand awareness opportunities.
DataPlay is working closely with a large number of brand name consumer electronics device manufacturers who are developing a broad range of DataPlay-enabled products which are expected to be released in 2001.
Benefits
DataPlay, Inc. offers an exciting, dynamic, casual work environment with outstanding benefits which include:
comprehensive health insurance,dental benefits,
group life insurance,disability insurance, paid holidays, personal and sick leave, training sponsorship,recreation club, etc.
Pay to Play
Will retroactive royalty payments for Webcast music fly?
By Michael Della Bitta
May 9, 2001
Thought the Napster lawsuit was the only legal battle the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) was fighting? Not true. The RIAA is wrestling with an alliance of Web media companies over the royalties Webcasters should pay for playing copy-righted songs over the Internet.
A law enacted in 1995--the Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act--dictates that Webcasters pay royalties to the recording industry for the music they play. The fee structure, however, was left to the United States Copyright Office, which has been holding hearings on the matter. The decision of the Copyright Office may take a heavy toll on Webcasters, who not only will be saddled with new fees, but will have to pay retroactively for every song they've played since October of 1998, when the Digital Millennium Copyright Act went into effect.
Radio Royalties
Strangely, traditional broadcast radio has never had to pay royalties to the recording industry for playing music. Last century, when the laws governing broadcasting were written, the recording industry opted to waive rights to royalties because it expected that airplay would promote music and the industry would profit in the end. The recording industry is whistling another tune when it comes to Webcasting.
"For generations the recording industry has regretted giving terrestrial broadcasters the right to play albums without paying them. It's not so much saying that the digital world is different than the terrestrial world, it's righting what it's seen as a wrong," says Ric Dube, a Webnoize analyst and online music expert.
The RIAA proposal puts Webcasting royalties at $0.004 per song. Although mere fractions of a cent might seem like a pittance, the proposed rate has other industry insiders hopping mad. "It's too expensive. It has no rational connection to the economics of Webcasting," says Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Association (DiMA).
Fee Feud
Potter contends that the RIAA's rate is 30 times the rate collected from radio broadcasters by publishing royalty groups such as ASCAP and BMI. Aggregated, the fees will net the recording industry "a remarkable amount of money" Potter says. Not surprisingly, Potter's DiMA, which represents Webcasters, has filed a counterproposal with the Copyright office for a cheaper rate: $0.0015 per listener hour.
The RIAA justifies the higher rate on the grounds that it is based on a "fair market value," according to Jano Cabera, a RIAA spokesperson: "We think that we were in a particularly strong position to justify our rate. We think that the 25 companies that we've negotiated with are a pretty fair representation of the market.".
DiMA disagrees. Aside from Yahoo, the RIAA's list included "companies you've never heard of--that I've never heard of," Potter says. He suggests that the RIAA may have strongarmed smaller Webcasting companies into agreeing with an inflated rate to skew the numbers. And he takes issue with the structure of RIAA's fee." A per-song fee is more likely to persuade Webcasters to not play songs. It doesn't promote music."
On the other hand, DiMA's rate is based largely on ASCAP and BMI's rates and rates charged for broadcasts in other countries. "DiMA's plan is grounded in facts and history," in Potter's view.
According to Cabera, however, the numbers aren't applicable. "It's like apples and oranges," he says. "This is a specific rate for Webcasting." Webnoize analyst Dube thinks both numbers are biased: "These two trade groups are looking to get the best deal possible for their constituents. They're probably going to meet somewhere in between."
http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/stories/trends/0,7607,2717063,00.html
OT but worth a read for the spaced-out among us...
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/future-01f.html
XM Satellite Radio (XMSR: news, msgs, alerts) climbed more than 24 percent after the Washington, D.C., firm said its second satellite "Roll" was successfully launched. The company said its first satellite "Rock" has settled into orbit and completed its deployments. The satellite remains scheduled to begin broadcasting in mid-May with commercial service pegged to begin late this summer.
http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?siteid=go2net&dist=go2netmore&guid=%7B63FEF467%2D7....
PS: XMSR now up 39%
Songbird targets Napster users
By Reuters
May 9, 2001 5:28 AM PT
URL: http://www.zdnet.com/filters/printerfriendly/0,6061,2716953-2,00.html
LONDON--Songbird, the software brainchild of a 20-year-old Internet entrepreneur, was launched on Wednesday with song-swap company Napster firmly in its sights.
The technology, billed as the first offered to everyone as an Internet search tool, enables artists and musicians to track down who has done what with their compositions.
The software, invented by Utah-based Travis Hill, won the backing of the record industry's IFPI watchdog and 10 organizations representing artists, songwriters and publishers.
Songbird was introduced at IFPI's London headquarters.
"Songbird gives music copyright holders a completely new insight into how Napster is using their music and, if they want to, take steps to get it removed," said IFPI Chairman Jay Berman.
"Songbird complements the efforts by U.S. right owners to enforce their rights and it fits with IFPI's global anti-piracy strategy," he added in a statement.
The new search tool, developed by Media Enforcer LLC to give smaller players and independents a chance to track their work on Napster, was being publicly offered on the www.iapu.org Internet site from Wednesday, the IFPI said.
Travis Hill, who turned his attention to on-line music technologies after 10 years training as a classical pianist, said: "We wrote this software to protect our own work and to help others to do the same."
Songbird follows the release by Napster of its own software that can read "digital fingerprints."
Napster, which announced it had licensed the technology from Virginia-based Relatable last month, said on its Web site it was adding the new feature to comply with a federal court order that bars the trading of copyrighted songs on its service.
Napster said the software reads sonic characteristics of song files and will help it stop users from downloading songs without record companies' permission.
According to a Webnoize study released last week, Napster use fell by 36 percent in April.
Nevertheless, over a billion song files were traded on the service last month, leading the recording industry to complain that Napster's efforts to comply with the San Francisco injunction issued on March 5 are inadequate.
As Napster has sought to block trading of these files, many users found ways around its screening mechanisms by tweaking file names.
Napster's service attracted over 60 million users who swap songs for free by trading MP3 files, a compression format that turns music on compact discs into small digital files.
The world's biggest record labels first sued Napster in December 1999, claiming it was a haven for copyright piracy that would cost them billions of dollars in lost music sales.
"Since we began blocking certain files, we have been progressively refining the system to both more accurately and more thoroughly block access to music files we have been asked to exclude," Napster said in a message posted on its Web site.
A spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America said: "We're pleased that Napster is announcing more and more steps toward compliance with the injunction."
(OT) From last month (04/25)
http://www.computex.com.tw/roundup_archive_detail.asp?index=20010425&items=1
Industrial Development Bureau Signs Agreement with Intel and IBM
In order to speed up the IA (Information Appliances) development in Taiwan, Industrial Development Bureau of the MOEA had recently signed a co-operation agreement with Intel. Under the agreement, Industrial Development Bureau is to assist Taiwanese companies in the development of mobile phone and PDA in one Smart Phone, as well as to elevate Taiwan IA products' visibility and contribution in the international market. In addition, the Bureau will also sign another agreement with IBM this week. In this case, IBM will be the provider of technical assistance of Pervasive e-business and also establish an IA technology research center to help Taiwanese companies in applying IBM's IA technology.
DABOSS does a little venting...
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=674668
Doni, per IBM the microdrive has a CF+ type interface, to include on-board ATA controller and PCMCIA interface. See http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/diskdrdl/micro/datasheet.htm and http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/diskdrdl/micro/whitepaper/smallformfactorsd.htm .
OT: Preview Systems Reports First Quarter 2001 Results
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-08-2001/0001488496&...
Cheaper flash cards in 2002???
Infineon Technologies and Saifun Semiconductors Announce Joint Venture to Develop Flash Memory Technology
http://sf-web1.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?day0/211280555&ticker=ifx
MUNICH, Germany & NETANYA, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 2001-- Infineon Technologies AG (FSE/NYSE: IFX) and Saifun Semiconductors Ltd. today announced that they have established a joint venture, named Ingentix. The new company will develop, manufacture and market flash memory products based on Saifun's patented Nitrided Read Only Memory (NROM) technology.
Ingentix initially will focus on developing MultiMediaCard(TM) storage products, the world's smallest memory cards. The company expects to roll out an extremely low-cost Flash-MultiMediaCard, with a memory capacity of 64 megabyte (MB), in the third quarter of the year 2002. In the long term, Ingentix intends to apply NROM flash technology to other markets and applications.
Infineon Technologies, a principal developer of the MultiMediaCard and the world's leading supplier of integrated circuits for smart card applications, will license its know-how with respect to secure card storage and security controllers for smart card applications to Ingentix. Saifun is licensing its NROM-based flash memory technology and embedded flash technology to Ingentix. Furthermore, the joint venture benefits from Infineon's experience in DRAM technology and manufacturing capacity.
Ingentix will be located in Munich, Germany, and Netanya, Israel. Infineon holds a majority share of 51 percent, while Saifun owns 49 percent of Ingentix. The two companies will share in the entrepreneurial management. The companies also announced that they have named Yair Alpern as the chief executive officer of Ingentix and Juergen Hammerschmitt as the chief marketing officer. Initially, the main sales activities will be handled via Infineon's existing distribution channels in Germany.
Dr. Boaz Eitan, president and CEO at Saifun Semiconductors and member of the Ingentix board, said: "Combining Saifun's NROM technology and Infineon's expertise in controllers, security and manufacturing processes, Ingentix will not only provide the benchmark technology of the future, but is well-positioned to obtain cost leadership. We expect the joint venture to further improve the position of MultiMediaCard as the world's leading flash memory card."
Dr. Juergen Kuttruff, vice president and chief operating officer at Infineon's Security & Chip Card ICs business group, said: "The winning combination of Saifun's and Infineon's complementary technologies will place Ingentix far ahead of its competitors and will enable low-cost MultiMediaCard products to meet the demands of future security-sensitive applications, such as digital rights management schemes."
The new Flash-MultiMediaCard contains a memory IC and a MultiMediaCard-optimized chip card controller. The product will be jointly developed in Germany and Israel. The Flash-MultiMediaCards will be manufactured in Infineon's DRAM production line in Dresden, benefiting from high synergy effects between NROM and DRAM technologies.
About NROM technology
Saifun has developed a leading-edge non-volatile memory (NVM) technology. This technology places two physical bits per cell, enabling production of the most cost-effective, best performing NVM products in the market. The NROM technology is an ideal solution for mass storage flash, code flash applications and embedded applications.
About MultiMediaCards
The MultiMediaCard is the world's smallest memory card, extremely rugged, light-weight, energy efficient, fast and cost-effective. With its integrated interface the MultiMediaCard is an easy-to-install memory device that is particularly suitable for use in portable applications such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDA), and e-books, as well as entertainment electronics, such as digital cameras, MP3 player and toys.
About Saifun Semiconductors
Saifun Semiconductors Ltd. has developed and patented the best density per price ratio NVM (non-volatile memory) solutions in the semiconductors market. Saifun is a fabless company whose breakthrough NROM technology is revolutionizing the design and development of NVM. The company's flash memory products serve the fast growing markets for mobile systems, such as cellular phones, PDAs, digital cameras and Internet appliances. Backed by strategic investors, among them M-System and Infineon Technologies, Saifun partners with leading global semiconductor and electronic system suppliers to jointly accelerate the development of new flash-based memory products. Saifun was founded in 1998 by Dr. Boaz Eitan and is recognized as one the most promising semiconductor start-up companies. Further information at www.saifun.com
About Infineon
Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions for applications in the wired and wireless communications markets, for security systems and smartcards, for the automotive and industrial sectors, as well as memory products. With a global presence, Infineon operates in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from Tokyo. In the fiscal year 2000 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 7.28 billion with about 29,000 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at www.infineon.com
Per an updated page at GlobalSources, the ET-700 also can be supplied with optional EPAC, AAC and QDesign codecs, as well as the standard WMA/MP3 model.
http://www.v2gsol.globalsources.com/gsol/owa/asol_products.details?in_adv_prod_id=8808818473&in_...
ET700 Personal Jukebox (USA Exclusive)(July Available)
Key Specifications/Special Features:
Personal audio entertainment center
Supports MP3/WMA format
Play-list management
Built-in charger
With three codes stored in the code, flash at any time
SDMI/DRM capable
Up to 10 hours continuously playback
Cabinet:
142 x 135 x 31mm
ABS material
Function controls:
Volume up
Volume down
Play/pause/power-on
Stop/power off
Resume-normal-hold
Fast forward
Rewind
Menu
DRM:
Supports Microsoft DRM
Supports Intertrust DRM
Audio:
Headphone output: 10mW + 10mW
Frequency range: 20Hz to 20kHz
S/N ratio: >90dB
EQ:
Preset (jazz/rock/classic/pop/flat)
Users' define 5-band graphic EQ
Storage:
5/6/7.5GB or plus 2.5-inch slim HDD
Display:
LCD (view area: 48.62 x 24.29mm)
I/O:
USB port
Line-out
DC-in
Phone jack
Power source:
Li-ion rechargeable battery
AC/DC adapter
Accessories:
Stereo headphone (neck style)
USB cable
Users' manual
Universal AC/DC adapter
Carry pouch
Installation CD
Car kit (optional)
Packing:
Gift box
Optional items:
AAC/EPAC/Q-design format
WOW
Main Export Markets: Worldwide
I wonder if that article is referring to PWM (pulse width modulation) wave synthesis? Works OK in AC drives, but the motor windings need to have much better insulation due to 'ringing', which causes induced voltage spikes exceeding the insulation breakdown rating. Still, the power efficiency is pretty good.
Note the investor list...
http://www.sigmatel.com/press/090600-secure24.htm
FWIW (note Creative remark at end of story)...
http://www.msnbc.com/news/566427.asp
hmmm... pretty powerful memory interface:
http://www.sigmatel.com/graphics/audiodecoder-b-block.jpg
Nobucks, I believe it was DABOSS at RB who posted an e-mail exchange with Portal Player which seemed to indicate we were working with them in some fashion (NDAs were mentioned, if I remember correctly). I've never seen formal mention of an EDIG prtnership at the Portal Player website.
OT: Texas Instruments Wireless Security Safeguards Consumers Peace of Mind for 2.5 and 3G Mobile Devices
TI, Top Security Innovators Set New Standard for Enabling Most Complete Wireless Security Solutions
DALLAS (May 7, 2001) -- The ability to safely buy airline tickets from your mobile phone, or protect your wireless PDA from hackers, will soon be possible through advanced wireless security technology from Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN). TI's new wireless security library, combined with TI's programmable digital signal processor (DSP)-based OMAP(tm) platform, provides wireless carriers and handset manufacturers a range of high performance hardware and software solutions to give consumers secure next generation (2.5 and 3G) wireless services such as mobile commerce, downloadable and streaming content, interactive banking, mobile office and wireless networking. (See http://www.ti.com/sc/omap.)
"TI's wireless security library delivers the most comprehensive portfolio of advanced security solutions available today," said Will Strauss, president of analyst firm Forward Concepts. "By combining TI's security library with its DSP-based OMAP family of processors, handset manufacturers and wireless carriers will deliver wireless applications with enhanced security and system performance, greatly enhancing consumers' user experience and peace of mind."
TI's security library combines advanced technology from TI and leading security companies SafeNet, NTRU, WhiteCell, SnapShield and AuthenTec. Key components including memory protection, advanced public and private key encryption, virus screening, firewall protection, and fingerprint recognition will serve as the foundation of TI's library of security solutions. By leveraging both hardware and software, TI will offer handset manufacturers customized solutions for meeting the toughest security requirements including protection from theft or malicious attack, data when in transit or distributed to handsets by network servers. TI has accomplished this task by providing complete solutions compliant with the latest security standards, working with industry leaders in mobile security, and participating in consortia such as the Consortia for Efficient Embedded Security (CEES).
"TI's advanced wireless security library enables complete security solutions, safeguarding the consumer, service and content providers," said David Potts, OMAP worldwide applications and m-commerce manager, TI. "By working closely with the leaders in wireless security technology, TI's comprehensive portfolio of hardware and software security solutions will provide handset manufacturers and wireless service providers the ability to protect the financial, mobile commerce, content and business transactions of their valued customers."
TI's programmable DSP-based OMAP architecture, unveiled in May 1999, delivers advanced wireless Internet and multimedia functionality without compromising battery life essential to wireless communications devices. OMAP is quickly becoming the de facto standard for 2.5 and 3G, as leading manufacturers including Nokia, Ericsson, Sony, Sendo and HTC have already selected it for their next generation wireless handsets and mobile Internet devices.
"TI's DSP-based OMAP processor offers the most sophisticated capabilities for advancing wireless communications and transactions," said Scott Crenshaw, chief executive officer of NTRU. "TI's DSP dramatically accelerates NTRU's core public-key encryption operations by a factor of four, providing transparent security and a better wireless experience for the consumer. NTRU is pleased to be included in the core libraries of TI's innovative processor technologies which are leading the advancement of secure next-generation wireless services."
TI's advanced security solutions provide complete security capabilities to satisfy consumers' peace of mind. WhiteCell offers technology that monitors traffic, filters and prevents inappropriate content from unwanted sources. SafeNet provides its SecureIP™ technology, including an advanced software and hardware cryptographic library for meeting the latest security standards and ensuring confidential data. NTRU provides an advanced public-key cryptosystem that allows carriers to deliver scalable, transparent security to the consumer at significantly lower cost. Snapshield's DSP-enhanced encryption technology protects any kind of data and streaming media from tampering or theft during transmission from the network to the handset. AuthenTec's biometric fingerprint recognition technology ensures only authorized users can access a handset.
"The OMAP DSP-based processing engine is an ideally suited platform to enable low-cost, high-speed security in wireless devices," said Mike Kaplan, Chief Technology Officer for SafeNet. "The combination of OMAP's low power and high throughput capacity make it an ideal environment for SafeNet's strong, widely accepted security technology."
# # #
Trademarks:
OMAP is a trademark of Texas Instruments Incorporated.
SecureIP is a trademark of Safenet.
Please remember that this board is for discussion of e.Digital. Please confine unrelated discussions to the chat rooms or private messages.
TIA,
Tinroad
Danl, I am of the belief that our MicroOS might have found a place in TI's OMAP platform. This is only a hunch, but some of OMAP's features in the area of memory management look very familiar.
EDIG: Info for Investors (5/6 AM rNH)
General DD Info (Corporate profile, SEC filings, Patents, lots more):
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=66673 (revised 3/8)
Recent News and Opinions:
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=672712
and http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=672715 (Orbit appears in Samsung commercial)
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=672506 (BusyBump chats w/Putnam)
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=668929 (Intel orders MP3 players from Eastech)
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=669383 (Eastech lands Sanyo order)
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=668935 (Treo ads flying high)
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=668916 (Recent Treo sightings)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=91844 (EDIG mention in Volan ad)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=90491 (Recent RP e-mails at RB)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=84624 (Cksla's XYBR chronicles)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=83856
and http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=84611 (Hammacher-Schlemmer catalog offers Treo)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=83521 (Brewmeister visits EDIG)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=81983 (Xybernaut to collaborate with IBM, TXN)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=82749 (More re XYBR)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=81621 (Rioport intros Music Delivery Service)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=81406 (Makomemoney chats w/Putnam)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=81294 (New look jukebox from Eastech)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=79586 (Packers1 chats w/Putnam)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=79571 (Trillium chats w/Putnam)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=79567 (New DataPay player from A-Max)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=79579 (Multi-codec player from A-Max)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=76832 (Intel VTT plans for China market)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=76546 (InHand partners w/Conversay)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=76465 (MP2000 details at Global Resource)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=76168
and http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=76246 (New IBM platform for internet appliances)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=76119
and http://www.siliconinvestor.com/stocktalk/msg.gsp?msgid=15637828 (New XYBR/IBM wearable computer due)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=75782 (Some ITRU customer woes)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=75784 (Loudeye RIFs and plans roll-out)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=75578 (WSJ re MSFT vs MP3)
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=75655 (POTCE update re Treo)
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=659615 (Eastech update per unclejed47)
EDIG news and opinions (pre-4/12/01):
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/read_msg.asp?message_id=82919
Common Abbreviations:
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIGOT&read=4488
A look back at the early days on RB:
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=642371
===========================================================
Treo review compilation: http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=612321
===========================================================
EDIG Private board at RB:
(Basher-free, open to all who behave themselves)
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=300337 (Instructions for joining)
Free EDIG news e-mails via eGroups:
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=570639
Moderated EDIG boards (no bashers/spammers):
http://www.investorshub.com/beta/board.asp?board_id=299
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/stocktalk/subject.gsp?subjectid=51056
athomedad's EDIG Page:
http://www.edigpage.com
EDIG mention in Volan PR:
Volan Design Completes Website Design and Development for www.SAB101.org by diCarta, Inc.
BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 30, 2001--Volan Design:
Easy-to-Use, One-Stop Educational Portal Design Provides Information
on Revenue Management Best Practices
Volan Design(TM) LLC, an award-winning international product, brand and digital media development company, today announced the launch of SAB101.org, a website designed and developed by Volan Design for diCarta(TM), Inc., the leader in Internet-based, business-to-business contract and revenue management solutions.
SAB101.org is an informational portal focused on Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) guidelines concerning revenue recognition geared toward financial professionals.
Design Goals
Volan Design and diCarta identified three key design goals for the SAB101.org website. Primarily, the portal must be very easy to use. This was accomplished with a user-centered design that provides a clean, intuitive interface, organizing and enhancing a large amount of information from a variety of sources. Secondly, users have to be able to find and utilize information with a minimum number of clicks. Volan Design and the diCarta team created an information architecture that is flexible enough to allow users access to vital information, yet scalable enough to accommodate a growing amount of content in the future. Finally, due to the immediate nature of the SAB101 topic, the website has to be easy to update and maintain. The website has been structurally designed so that content can be easily added without altering the user's experience; in addition, the technical implementation of SAB101.org is highly scalable.
``Designing such a text-intensive site for the intended audience presented Volan Design with some unique design challenges. In response, I believe we have crafted a very elegant, very solid foundation that will prove to be a valuable knowledge base and resource center for anyone who is interested in keeping up with the latest on SAB101,'' says Gino Zahnd, senior interactive designer at Volan Design.
Volan Design: Integrated Design for Product, Brand and Digital Media
Volan Design is a multi-disciplinary product, brand and digital media development firm dedicated to helping clients define, design and launch products into the marketplace utilizing the powerful competitive advantages of brand-centric design. Volan Design has delivered award-winning product, brand, and digital media development for national and international clients since the firm's inception in 1979. Based in Boulder, Colo., with offices in Palo Alto, Calif., Volan Design's client roster includes DataPlay, Inc.; e.Digital Corporation; Hitachi Medical Systems America Inc.; MatchLogic; Network Photonics; Oracle Corporation; Reebok/CCS; and Waterpik Technologies. For more information about Volan Design, call 303/530-2828 and visit the company's website at www.volan.com.
Trademarks: Volan Design and the Volan Design logo are trademarks of Volan Design LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
Note to Editors: Project images may be viewed at www.volan.com. To access high-resolution images, contact Wendy Volan.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eastern Asia Technology Limited SECURES HUGE ORDERS FROM LEADING AUDIO COMPANIES
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=669383
(March 7, 2001)
The Board of Directors of Eastern Asia Technology Limited (the "Company") is pleased to inform that the Company has secured two new major contracts with leading branded consumer electronic names, SANYO and Singing Machine which amounts to US$43m.
Singing Machine, the world's largest home karaoke company, is a new customer to the Company. The contract is for a new product, home karaoke systems and amounts to US$18m. Delivery will start in April 2001.
Japanese brand, SANYO traditionally outsources its speaker systems to the Company. The new contract from SANYO is for audio electronics and amounts to US$25m. Delivery of the products will start this month.
http://info.sgx.com/webcorannc.nsf/2466193e3e3937be4825655300242a8d/75362abdf86a67d348256a08001d4b97...