Cirrus Logic Shipments Of 64-Bit Video/Graphics Accelerators Approach 3 Million Units In Third Calendar Quarter; Alpine Family Continues To Win Wide Acceptance Among Major PC Manufacturers.FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 30, 1996--Underscoring the widespread acceptance of its Alpine(TM) family of graphics chip solutions, Cirrus Logic 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 : CRUS) disclosed today that it has shipped approximately 3 million 64-bit Alpine VisualMedia(TM) accelerators (CL-GD5446 and CL-GD5436) during the third calendar quarter. The company reports that its Alpine chip solutions are currently being used by leading OEMs for both add-in card and motherboard implementation. Current customers include Acer, Compaq, Creative Labs, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) , 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. , Prolink Microsystems, Samsung, Siemens and STB See set-top box. STB - set-top box . "We are impressed with the GD5446's ability to support advanced 32-bit applications under Microsoft's(R) Windows NT Workstation," said Rob Wait, Hewlett-Packard's worldwide product marketing manager, commercial desktop computing division. "Cirrus Logic's VisualMedia accelerator has helped our HP Vectra VA desktop PC set the value standard for feature richness in the business PC market." In its October "Inside Information" design trends feature, OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) The rebranding of equipment and selling it. The term initially referred to the company that made the products (the "original" manufacturer), but eventually became widely used to refer to the organization that buys the products and Magazine reported, "For the second roundup in a row, Cirrus Logic has edged out S3 in design wins for the graphics-controller slot inside the most recently announced PCs. This is at least partially because the last two reports have been characterized by top-tier business PCs and servers." The Alpine family is also making its mark in the add-in consumer market. "A key element to our success is our partners," said Steve Mosher A mosher is a person who is crossed between goth/punk/skater they have long hair and listen to music like slipknot and metal music. Some people call them headbangers. At certain music shows they have something called a mosh pit, basically its a fight pit with loads of people bashing each other. , director of tools and technology, for Creative Labs. "We rely on partners, like Cirrus Logic, to provide us with compelling technology so we can deliver a superior solution to the end user. In April, we launched our new line of Graphics Blaster(TM) products featuring Cirrus Logic's GD5446. Their technology, combined with our distribution, earned our graphics accelerator boards high marks with our customers." This single-chip solution, which combines a powerful graphics engine with exceptional TV-quality video playback, is optimized for DirectX(TM) acceleration and supports emerging multimedia applications, such as MPEG-2 video playback, videoconferencing and Internet/Intranet video. Powerful 2D Acceleration The Alpine family of accelerators continue to lead the industry in 2D graphics performance. Earlier this year, the GD5446's 2D acceleration was highlighted at WinHEC (the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference The Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) is the annual software developer-oriented trade show and business conference where Microsoft elaborates on its hardware plans for Microsoft Windows-compatible PCs. ) in a Microsoft DirectX reference platform. The accelerator features a powerful graphics engine optimized to accelerate high-performance software applications, such as Microsoft's DirectX and Windows NT Workstation 4.0. The chip's Transparent BitBLT and Page Flip features provide the necessary support for high-end business and emerging mainstream applications. Unsurpassed Video Performance At Comdex/Spring, Prolink Microsystems showcased the GD5446's superior video capabilities on its new add-in card, the PixelView Combo TV Plus. After testing the device to confirm crisp, clean video at all resolutions tested, Computer Reseller News gave the chip its "Highly Recommended" stamp of approval, stating, "For those who want everything in video, this is a good card to have." According to Frank Tseng, president of Prolink, "The advanced video capabilities of the GD5446 has allowed us to succeed in the exploding video market." Multimedia Building Block Among the unique features of the Alpine family is the easy interface with peripherals, such as TV-tuners, digital cameras and MPEG-2 decoders. For Example, the GD5446 easily interfaces with LSI LSI: see integrated circuit. (Large Scale Integration) Between 3,000 and 100,000 transistors on a chip. See SSI, MSI, VLSI and ULSI. Logic's Scenario VMI-02 MPEG-2 module, to create the industry's first single-chip audio/video MPEG-2 decoder. Additionally, the chip's open architecture provides the core "building block" that allows Cirrus Logic to combine with Silicon Vision, a digital camera technology developer, to implement low-cost high-quality videoconferencing, video e-mail and video-capture solutions for the consumer market. The accelerator's open architecture is based on the industry- standard Video Module Interface (VMI VMI Virginia Military Institute VMI Vendor Managed Inventory VMI Vertical Motion Index VMI Valtakunnan Metsien Inventointi (Finnish: National Forest Inventory) VMI Video Module Interface ) bus and VPM VPM Vibrations Per Minute (engineering) VPM Vampire Princess Miyu (anime) VPM Video Port Manager VPM Virtual Product Management VPM Ventroposteromedial VPM Voice Processing Module API software, an open software interface specification created by Cirrus Logic, which enables digital video from multimedia peripherals to be merged into the computer graphics display. The open architecture serves as a multimedia building block, which allows OEMs to customize product features. New Alpine Family Member Raises Video Performance Bar Cirrus Logic expanded its popular Alpine family earlier this week with the addition of the CL-GD5480, the industry's highest performance 100 MHz (MegaHertZ) One million cycles per second. It is used to measure the transmission speed of electronic devices, including channels, buses and the computer's internal clock. A one-megahertz clock (1 MHz) means some number of bits (16, 32, 64, etc. SGRAM (Synchronous Graphics RAM) A type of dynamic RAM chip that is similar to the SDRAM technology, but includes enhanced graphics features for use with display adapters. accelerator. With features specifically designed to raise the performance bar for video on desktop PCs, the latest member of Cirrus Logic's Alpine family delivers graphics Winbench96 performance of more than 40 million Winmarks(1) and frame buffer memory bandwidth of 800MB/sec. According to Cirrus Logic, its latest entry is poised to power next-generation video applications such as Internet/Intranet display, video capture, videoconferencing, MPEG-2/DVD playback and those using Intel Intercast(TM) technology. The CL-GD5480 adds advanced video support features such as software video compression acceleration (Planar YUV The color encoding system used for analog television worldwide (NTSC, PAL and SECAM). The YUV color space (color model) differs from RGB, which is what the camera captures and what humans view. 420 format support), glueless digital camera interlace To illuminate a screen by displaying all odd lines in the frame first and then all even lines. Interlacing uses half frames per second (fields per second) rather than full frames per second. , dual hardware video windows, PCI bus mastering, and smooth 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). "de-interlacing" support. Cirrus Logic is a leading manufacturer of advanced integrated circuits for the desktop and portable computing, telecommunications, and consumer electronics markets. The company applies its system-level expertise in analog and digital design to innovate highly integrated, software-rich solutions. Cirrus Logic has developed a broad portfolio of products and technologies for applications spanning multimedia, communications, mass storage, and data acquisition. Additional information about Cirrus Logic and its subsidiaries may be accessed on the World Wide Web at http://www.cirrus.com/ or via fax-on-demand at 800/359-6414 (dial 510/249-4200 from outside the United States). (1) Graphics Winbench96 performance results quoted are for a system with a P5-166 microprocessor 430FX core logic, 256K pipelined burst L2 cache, 16MB main memory, Windows 95 O/S, 2MB frame buffer, 100 MHz MCLK MCLK Master Clock MCLK Memory Clock , 1024x768 resolution display, 8bpp color depth, 75 Hz monitor refresh rate. -0- Note to Editors: All trademarks noted herein are registered to their respective owners. CONTACT: Cirrus Logic Inc. Erin Barrite, 510/226-2239 erinb@corp.cirrus.com or Tsantes & Associates Mary Jane Reiter, 408/452-8700 maryjane@tsantes.com |
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