ESS Technology provides AudioDrive chip in Digital Equipment Corp.'s new notebook PC.FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 28, 1995--ESS Technology Inc. Tuesday announced that Digital Equipment Corp. has chosen to use ESS Technology's ES1488 AudioDrive chip in Digital's new notebook PC, the Digital HiNote Ultra. The ES1488 brings 16-bit multi-voice music synthesis to Digital's notebook platform. "In the Digital HiNote Ultra, we wanted a notebook design with a sleek and light form and with `no-sacrifice' performance features," said Mark Foster, director of engineering for Mobile Products in Digital's PC Business Unit. "The 1-inch vertical height of the Digital HiNote Ultra mandated a feature-packed design with high integration. ESS' ES1488 AudioDrive provided a high-quality music synthesis solution in a single chip, and the ES1488's compatibility with audio standards and games software standards enables 16-bit multimedia applications on our platform." ESS AudioDrive is compatible with Microsoft Windows See Windows. (operating system) Microsoft Windows - Microsoft's proprietary window system and user interface software released in 1985 to run on top of MS-DOS. Widely criticised for being too slow (hence "Windoze", "Microsloth Windows") on the machines available then. , Microsoft Windows Sound System 2.0 and also 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) OS/2. The ES1488 features built-in FM synthesis A technique for generating the sounds of musical instruments for MIDI playback. Used in cellphones for ringtones and low-end sound cards, FM synthesis does not create sound as faithfully as wavetable synthesis, which uses actual samples of the instruments. See MIDI and wavetable synthesis. 16-bit digital audio for single chip PC Audio and multimedia applications. The high level of integration found in the ES1488 provides designers a practical single-chip solution for motherboard PC designs supporting audio for PC games in Sound Blaster and Sound Blaster Pro modes. "We are pleased with Digital's decision to adopt AudioDrive in the Digital HiNote notebook line," said Fred Chan, president of ESS Technology. "Companies are quickly adopting integrated music chips as an integral part of notebook PC designs. Digital's HiNote Ultra represents the direction of leading-edge notebook designs that integrate the AudioDrive benefits of 16-bit digital audio with advanced power management features critical in portable platforms." ESS Technology provides integrated VLSI VLSI: see integrated circuit. (1) (Very Large Scale Integration) Between 100,000 and one million transistors on a chip. See SSI, MSI, LSI and ULSI. (2) (VLSI Technology, Inc., Tempe, AZ, www.semiconductors. multimedia solutions for PC 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 and plug-in card manufacturers. ESS' core technology includes mixed signal VLSI design and multimedia applications software technology, concentrating on single-chip audio solutions for PC motherboards. ESS' AudioDrive family of audio chips includes the ES488 and ES1488 for compatibility with the basic Sound Blaster and music synthesis, and the ES688 and ES1688 which add stereo music production. The ES1488 produces 16-bit music with a built-in music synthesizer synthesizer Machine that electronically generates and modifies sounds, frequently with the use of a digital computer, for use in the composition of electronic music and in live performance. for record, playback, and FM music synthesis, with a Sound Blaster compatible MIDI port for music composition and playback. The ES1488 includes a 5-channel mixer, power management, operation at 5.0 and 3.3 volts, and supports ADPCM (Adaptive Differential PCM) A widely used variation of PCM that codes the difference between sample points like differential PCM (DPCM), but can also dynamically switch the coding scale to compensate for variations in amplitude and frequency. and ESS-patented ESPCM ESPCM Electronic Speech Systems Pulse Code Modulation compression. -0- Note to Editors: HiNote is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corp. ESPCM and AudioDrive are registered trademarks of ESS Technology Inc. All other trademarks are owned by their respective holders. CONTACT: ESS Technology Inc. William Windsor, 510/226-1088 |
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