3DO, ARM Enter Technology Cross-License Agreement.REDWOOD CITY Redwood City, city (1990 pop. 66,072), seat of San Mateo co., W Calif., on San Francisco Bay; inc. 1868. Manufactures include commmunications, electrical, electronic, and medical equipment. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 17, 1995--The 3DO Company and Advanced RISC Machines Ltd (ARM)(TM) today announced an agreement to cross-license technology for use in advanced consumer electronics products worldwide. Under the agreement, 3DO has licensed rights to implement a development of the ARM6 processor architecture in current and future 3DO(TM) technology designs. In return, ARM has received rights to use and license 3DO's proprietary NTSC/PAL digital video encoder technology. "The ARM RISC RISC in full Reduced Instruction Set Computing Computer architecture that uses a limited number of instructions. RISC became popular in microprocessors in the 1980s. architecture is ideal for a wide variety of system designs requiring advanced performance at reduced cost," said Hugh Martin, 3DO's Chief Operating Officer Chief Operating Officer (COO) The officer of a firm responsible for day-to-day management, usually the president or an executive vice-president. . "Our expanded agreement with ARM represents a significant contribution to 3DO's already vast technology portfolio, and is testimony to our long-term strategic relationship with ARM." The ARM6 design, like all current ARM processors, is optimized to be easily integrated at reduced cost. 3DO plans to increase its suite of technology solutions by incorporating a subset of the existing ARM6 architecture into its custom processors designed for the advanced interactive entertainment market. 3DO recently integrated multiple custom graphics and sound processors into one chip known as Anvil anvil Iron block on which metal is placed for shaping, originally by hand with a hammer. The blacksmith's anvil is usually of wrought iron (sometimes of cast iron), with a smooth working surface of hardened steel. , which is currently being used in mass production of 3DO products. During its next phase of engineering integration and cost reduction, 3DO expects to incorporate ARM6 technology and Anvil into one chip, currently known as Calvin. "Our partnership with ARM enables us to offer single-chip solutions for 3DO products," said Martin. "As a result, we are able to achieve new levels of system integration and increasingly aggressive cost-to-manufacture price points on behalf of 3DO hardware manufacturers." Under its technology cross-license agreement with 3DO, ARM plans to leverage 3DO's expertise in the consumer electronics technology arena. "Our technology partnership with 3DO and this cross-license agreement is ideal; it enables 3DO to reduce the cost to manufacture 3DO products, while we gain valuable consumer electronics system experience as we further expand into that marketplace," said Robin Saxby, ARM's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. "By working with 3DO, one of the first to endorse the ARM architecture, we can leverage its market experience with our product developments to meet customer needs." ARM designs, licenses and markets fast, low-cost, low power- consumption RISC processors, peripherals, and development tools for embedded control, consumer/educational multimedia, DSP (1) (Digital Signal Processor) A special-purpose CPU used for digital signal processing applications (see definition #2 below). It provides ultra-fast instruction sequences, such as shift and add, and multiply and add, which are commonly used in math-intensive , and portable applications. ARM licenses its technology to semiconductor partner companies that focus on manufacturing, applications, and marketing. Each partner offers unique ARM-related services, which together satisfy a wide range of application needs. ARM also provides consulting and training. ARM's partners with products in production are: GEC GEC Gaseous Electronics Conference GEC Gigabit EtherChannel GEC Geriatric Education Center (US government; HRSA) GEC General Electric Co. GEC Google Earth Community (online community) Plessey Semiconductors, Sharp Corporation, and VLSI Technology VLSI Technology, Inc was a company which designed and manufactured custom and semi-custom ICs. The company was based in Silicon Valley, with headquarters at 1109 McKay Drive in San Jose, California. and with products in development: Asahi Kasei Microsystems, Cirrus Logic (company) Cirrus Logic - A manufacturer of integrated circuits including the Advanced RISC Machine and display interface processors and cards for use as Windows accelerators (requiring dedicated driver software). http://cirrus.com/. , Digital Semiconductor, Samsung, and Texas Instruments. Together they are making ARM the world's volume RISC standard. Based in Redwood City, Calif., The 3DO Company (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :THDO) develops and licenses advanced interactive technology to hardware and software companies worldwide. The company's award-winning product design, the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer(TM) system, was created to deliver a breakthrough in interactive entertainment at an affordable price. 3DO also develops, publishes, and distributes CD-ROM CD-ROM: see compact disc. CD-ROM in full compact disc read-only memory Type of computer storage medium that is read optically (e.g., by a laser). software products for the 3DO system. The 3DO system is available in the United States from Panasonic, GoldStar, and Creative Labs. 3DO products are also available in Europe, Canada, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. -0- Note to Editors 3DO, the 3DO logos, and Interactive Multiplayer are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of The 3DO Company. ARM is a trademark of Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. CONTACT: The 3DO Company Diane Hunt, 415/261-3214 or Franson Hagerty Associates (for ARM) Susan Cain, 415/462-1605 REPEATS: New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of 212-575-8822 or 800-221-2462; Boston 617-330-5311 or 80 |
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