1394 Trade Association Predicts Strong Growth for Multimedia Bus in 1999; New Personal Computers, Cameras and Peripherals Poised for Introduction.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 7, 1999--

TA Leadership Sees Huge Momentum for IEEE-1394

Across CE, PC Markets

Leaders of the 1394 Trade Association, an international organization of more than 170 companies worldwide, today predicted 1999 will be a banner year for the multimedia bus, with a broad range of new 1394-equipped PCs and peripherals slated for introduction.

Chairman James Snider and members of the Trade Association board -- which includes Apple Computer, Compaq, Lucent, and IBM Microelectronics, among others -- said IEEE-1394 has now been accepted as the digital interface standard in the consumer electronics industry. It also is designed into a significant number of PCs, in more than 60 different PC and Macintosh peripherals, and in a long list of PC peripherals coming to market in 1999.

The 18-member 1394 Trade Association board also includes AMD, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Sony, Matsushita Electric, Molex, NEC Electronics, Philips, Sun Microsystems, 3A International, Yamaha, and Zayante. The TA maintains web sites at www.1394ta.org and www.1394showcase.com

"1394 is definitely going into PC peripherals such as printers, scanners and hard disk drives," said Snider, who represents Texas Instruments on the board. "Mass storage and desktop cameras which use 1394 are already in the market. Scanners and printers will be available in the second half of calendar 1999. These 1394 peripherals are based on silicon operating at speeds of 400 Megabits/second, which is much higher than other standards can provide. 1394 enables new products and new uses for traditional products in a new world of PC, peripheral, and A/V convergence."

"The market has many buses to choose from, and it is making those choices," he added. "The evidence shows a clear trend toward 1394 across the industry, because it is fast, and provides wide bandwidth with peer-to-peer connectivity."

1394's peer-to-peer capability means peripherals can connect directly to each other, such as a scanner and a printer for "photocopies." Digital cameras are able to connect directly to a printer with no need for a PC between them.

More than Seven Million PCs, New Camcorders, Peripherals Coming to Market

Market leaders recognize the value of 1394. By the end of 1999, for example, Compaq, Sony, Apple and NEC will be joined by four more leading PC makers who will be shipping 1394 enabled PCs. Based on orders for silicon, almost eight million 1394-enabled PCs will be delivered with IEEE-1394 this year, for use with 1394-based mass storage, printers, cameras and other peripherals. The Trade Association also envisions a rapid rise in 1394 silicon shipments throughout 1999 and the year 2000. For example, TI's Larry Blackledge, Worldwide Business Development Manager for Bus Solutions, predicted that TI alone will ship a total of 24 million 1394 chipsets in the year 2000, with most of the growth coming from demand among the leading PC manufacturers.

The line-up of companies committed to IEEE-1394 is growing. It now includes large multinational names such as Epson, Kodak, Apple, Sony and Hewlett-Packard, along with smaller companies such as Japan's Yano, which makes external storage devices for Apple's G3, and Boston-based VST, which develops portable computer accessories.

"Epson has plans to offer a FireWire connectivity solution in 1999 for use with our high-end color ink jet printers," said Jay Shears, director, printer product marketing, Epson. "Our products are known for outstanding color performance, and as we continue to introduce faster printers with superior image quality FireWire will provide the improved performance and greater flexibility in printing applications. The multi-host topology of FireWire will also allow for the sharing of our peripherals in small workgroups."

The benefits of 1394 over other bus architectures for high-speed, real-time data storage and transfer was also cited by Michael Teener, Chief Technical Officer at Zayante, Inc. and the leader of the technical team that first developed 1394, or FireWire, at Apple Computer.

"External storage devices require very high speeds such as the 400 Megabits/second already provided by existing 1394 devices, and the upgrades to 800 Megabits/second and 1600 Megabits/second that will be available when we conclude our work on the 1394b specification later this year," he said. "In addition, external storage vendors want to take advantage of the 'tapeless VCR' market created by 1394 peer-to-peer connectivity with consumer electronics devices."

Leading Companies Underline their Support for 1394

"IEEE 1394 FireWire is poised to become the most widely used industry standard to interconnect consumer electronics and personal computer devices," said Jon Rubenstein, senior vice president of hardware engineering at Apple Computer. "Our new Power Macintosh G3 systems integrate FireWire as standard and Mac customers are already snapping up the FireWire-compatible digital imaging and storage devices that are flooding into the market."

"TI is now seeing a significant increase in demand for our 1394 silicon and software products in 1999, with all indicators pointing to a very good year 2000," said Harry Davoody, vice president, Texas Instruments, Inc. "PC peripherals makers around the world are ramping up to introduce 1394 products in 1999, with multiple vendors supplying scanners, printers, desktop cameras and mass storage devices."

According to Paul Nahi, general manager of the multimedia and consumer groups at NEC Electronics, "NEC's standards-compliant 1394 Open HCI LSI device is now in volume shipments, and is being used by notebook and PC card vendors. NEC also is planning to introduce products for home multimedia applications, such as the long-distance 1394 physical layer which will be used in residential gateways."

Jay Kelbley of Eastman Kodak also is optimistic about the standard's growth this year. "Kodak sees FireWire as the high bandwidth connectivity solution and we are currently shipping several models of our professional cameras with the standard built in," he said. "As performance requirements for peripherals increase, you will see more and more products from Kodak that incorporate it."

HP believes that USB and 1394 will both be required in future printing and scanning needs," said Mark Fidler, senior engineer scientist for HP's Network Peripherals Solutions Division. "We will definitely need the high funcionality and performance of 1394."

About the 1394 Trade Association

The 1394 Trade Association, founded in 1995, consists of 170 companies and organizations from around the world dedicated to the proliferation of the 1394 Multimedia Serial Bus. For more information, please visit the TA web site at www.1394ta.org, or the TA's product showcase site at www.1394showcase.com

The TA headquarters is located at 2350 Mission College Blvd., Suite 350, Santa Clara, Calif., 95050. Tel: [phone].

FireWire is a trademark of Apple Computer