e.Digital Corporation (fka EDIG)

[emit]

The RioOne now The Zip.... Does make one wonder how, or even if, we come into play here. Do we 'get turned on' or is it accomplished via the dsp. Been looking for the old whitepaper on TIDSP.com where it told that the multi-codec ability can be downloaded via internet, reside on the player, or...... can't find. But anyway anyone notice Sanyo doesn't have a mp3 type player on their site anylonger - ONLY Gandered at their US site.

TI Powers SONICblue's New Rio One Digital Audio Player
TI's Programmable Internet Audio DSPs Chosen by Nine out of Top 10 Consumer Electronics Manufacturers
DALLAS (August 22, 2001) -- Expanding its position as the chipmaker of choice for Internet audio devices, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) today announced that SONICblue(tm) Incorporated (Nasdaq: SBLU) selected TI's industry-leading programmable digital signal processor (DSP) technology to power its new Rio(r) One digital audio player. Leveraging the performance headroom and programmability of TI's DSP, the Rio One can play multiple audio formats, is upgradeable to support future formats and costs less than $100. TI's low-power DSP also enables the Rio One to play up to 10 hours of music on one AA battery. (See http://www.ti.com/sc/internetaudio.)

"Designed with TI's DSP technology, the Rio One is lightweight, expandable and affordable, and is the ultimate purchase for teens, students and other first-time buyers seeking extreme portability and at least an hour's worth of high-quality music playback without the costs associated with premium features," said Janet Leising, vice president of marketing and business development, SONICblue.

Based on TI's low-power TMS320C54x™ DSP, SONICblue's Rio One offers 32MB of built-in memory, support for MP3 and Windows Media Audio (WMA) formats and can be upgraded to adapt to future market demands. TI's programmable DSPs offer the versatility to support future product features and audio compression formats by means of simple software downloads, rather than costly hardware upgrades.

"The Rio brand is synonymous with digital music hardware, and we are thrilled to work with industry-leader, SONICblue," said Chris Schairbaum, worldwide marketing manager of Internet Audio at TI. "With the addition of SONICblue to our extensive list of customers, TI has deepened our expertise and commitment to the digital music market and look forward to continued success in this area."

TI is one of the leading suppliers of chips into the Internet audio market, shipping its 3 millionth Internet audio DSP, more than any other programmable semiconductor manufacturer, in June of 2001. TI's award-winning DSP technology is designed into more than 80 Internet Audio devices, including products from nine of the top 10 consumer electronics manufacturers.

Priced at $99.95 (MSRP), the Rio One is currently available for purchase via SONICblue's eStore and is expected to be available at retail stores including Circuit City, Best Buy, CompUSA and Fry's Electronics within the next two weeks. For more information, or to purchase the Rio One online, visit http://www.SONICblue.com.

http://www.tidsp.com/sc/docs/news/2001/01147.htm