Chips and Technologies Graphics Controller Delivers Enhanced Video to New Digital Notebook Line; CHIPS' 65548 Supports Live Video and Large Displays on Digital's HiNote All-Pentium Notebook Computer Product Line.SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 23, 1996--Chips and Technologies, Inc. announced today that the new Digital HiNote Series of Pentium-based notebook computers from Digital Equipment Corporation incorporates CHIPS' flat panel/CRT VGA (Video Graphics Array) The display standard for the PC. All PC display adapters support VGA, and Windows machines boot up in "VGA mode" before switching to higher resolutions. 65548 graphics display controller. The CHIPS device enables vibrant, full-motion video and larger screen displays in Windows NT or Windows 95 environments, while Digital's HiNote notebooks deliver a full range of high performance solutions at aggressive price points. The highly integrated, cost-effective CHIPS 65548 is the first flat panel graphics controller to support burst mode transfers of up to 80 Mbytes over the PCI bus. PCI (1) (Payment Card Industry) See PCI DSS. (2) (Peripheral Component Interconnect) The most widely used I/O bus (peripheral bus). burst mode provides up to 30 percent faster performance than a comparable VL-based video system, a crucial factor in live video or MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) An ISO/ITU standard for compressing digital video. Pronounced "em-peg," it is the universal standard for digital terrestrial, cable and satellite TV, DVDs and digital video recorders (DVRs). playback. At the same time, CHIPS proprietary video cache technology helps reduce power consumption and increase graphics performance by up to 50 percent. The recently introduced HiNote notebooks are available in two forms with a variety of configurations to meet a wide range of requirements. The lightweight HiNote Ultra II line of ultra portables features a 10.4-inch Super Video Graphics Array (hardware) Super Video Graphics Array - (SVGA) A video display standard created by VESA for IBM PC compatible personal computers. The resolution is 800 x 600 4-bit pixels. Each pixel can therefore be one of 16 colours. See Video Graphics Array. (SVGA (Super VGA) A screen resolution of 800x600 pixels. Third-party vendors extended IBM's VGA display standard and were the first to use the term. SVGA has also referred to 1,024x768 resolutions. See PC display modes. ) active matrix color screen (except for the entry-level configuration). The HiNote VP line of entry-level notebooks features 10.4-inch SVGA color displays, with both dual-scan and active matrix video display technologies. Both HiNote lines have active-matrix color screens offering up to 64K colors at an 800 x 600 resolution. When combined with features such as PCI burst mode video, Pentium processors, or Digital's HiNote Ultra Mobile Media Module with 4X CD-ROM drive and stereo speakers, these features provide very high performance graphics and multimedia capabilities in a notebook computer. "This is the second generation of HiNote notebooks to use Chips and Technologies Chips and Technologies (C&T) was the first fabless semiconductor company, a model developed by its founder Gordon Campbell. Its first product was an EGA IBM compatible graphics chip. This was followed by chipsets for PC motherboards and other computer graphics chips. flat panel graphics controllers," said Brian Mullins, product marketing manager for Mobile Products, Digital's Personal Computer Business Unit. "The CHIPS 65548 not only provides superior performance and 3.3-volt operation, but it also offers a modular solution that we can easily integrate into all our notebook models, from the entry-level 75-MHz HiNote VP with a dual-scan display to the advanced 133-MHz HiNote Ultra II with an active matrix display (hardware) active matrix display - A type of liquid crystal display where each display element (each pixel) includes an active component such as a transistor to maintain its state between scans. Contrast passive matrix display. and Windows NT. Overall, we found no other device that could match its performance and ability to support multimedia and live video in different portable environments." About the 65548 The 65548 brings to users the ability to display live video on-screen as part of presentations, reports and training exercises. It is both software and pin compatible with its predecessor, the 65545, and maintains a video port for backward compatibility with existing members of CHIPS' family of flat panel controllers. These controllers are found in the industry's leading notebooks from manufacturers that include Digital, Toshiba, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and NEC (NEC Corporation, Tokyo, www.nec.com, www.necus.com) An electronics conglomerate known in the U.S. for its monitors. In Japan, it had the lion's share of the PC market until the late 1990s (see PC 98). NEC was founded in Tokyo in 1899 as Nippon Electric Company, Ltd. . "When we defined our product line, we wanted to offer full-motion video playback capability, and enable the OEM to quickly and cost-effectively develop complete product families," said Steve Preston, product marketing manager at Chips and Technologies. "The 65548's compatibility with its predecessors provides OEMs with an easy upgrade path to higher performance and future multimedia requirements." The 65548 integrates Chips and Technologies' proprietary video cache technology, which boosts graphics performance by up to 50 percent and reduces power consumption in the frame buffers. It also supports high-speed EDO DRAMs, and minimizes CPU CPU in full central processing unit Principal component of a digital computer, composed of a control unit, an instruction-decoding unit, and an arithmetic-logic unit. overhead with Windows linear acceleration drivers and an integrated BitBLT engine optimized for Windows applications. To maximize design flexibility, the 65548 supports the 32-bit VL local bus and the PCI bus, and features a direct 32-bit memory bus and a 8 level FIFO (First In First Out) A storage method that retrieves the item stored for the longest time. Contrast with LIFO. See traffic engineering methods. FIFO - first-in first-out for fast memory write and zero-wait-state CPU operation. Built-in video overlay capability allows OEMs to access virtually any video source and display live video images in a Windows environment. The 65548 offers simultaneous CRT (1) (C RunTime) See runtime library. (2) (Cathode Ray Tube) A vacuum tube used as a display screen in a computer monitor or TV. The viewing end of the tube is coated with phosphors, which emit light when struck by electrons. and flat panel operation, as well as up to 64k colors in both active matrix and dual scan displays. It supports 5 volts, 3.3 volts, and mixed-voltage operation. Both video cache and power down modes help reduce power consumption and stretch battery life. CHIPS supplies VGA-compatible BIOS. Additional VGA BIOS are available from third-party manufacturers. Also available are high-performance drivers for Windows, Windows NT, Windows 95 and OS/2. About Digital Digital Equipment Corporation is the world's leader in open client/server solution from personal computing to integrated worldwide information systems. Digital's Intel and Alpha platforms, storage, networking, software and services, together with industry-focused solutions from business partners, help organizations compete and win in today's global marketplace. About CHIPS Chips and Technologies, Inc. (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 :CHPS CHPS Collaborative for High Performance Schools CHPS Certified in Healthcare Privacy and Security CHPS Center for Health Policy Studies (healthcare consulting firm with offices in New York, Maryland, and Illinois) CHPS Combat Hybrid Power System ) is a leading supplier of highly integrated semiconductor and software solutions which provide graphics, video and other capabilities to portable and desktop computers. -0- Note to Editors: Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft in the U.S. and other countries. Pentium is a trademark of Intel Corporation. OS/2 is a trademark of IBM. All other products or service names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners. CONTACT: Chips and Technologies, Inc. Steve Preston, 408/434-0600 or MQPR MQPR M-Ary Quadrature Partial Response Matthew Quint, 510/651-9744 |
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