IIT and Siemens Offer Low-Cost Desktop Videoconferencing Reference Design; Solution Results in a Total Component Cost Under $250.SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 26, 1996--Siemens Components Inc. and Integrated Information Technology (company) Integrated Information Technology - (IIT) A Santa Clara based company producing a programmable, single chip H.261 and MPEG system. The chip contains a RISC processor, originally based on the MIPS architecture but now called RISCit, and a "Pixel Processor". , Inc. (IIT IIT - Integrated Information Technology ) today announced the availability of the DVC (1) (Digital Video Camera) A camcorder that records in digital format. See DV. (2) (Digital Video Cassette) An earlier term for the DV format. See DV. (3) See desktop videoconferencing. 5 reference board, a jointly developed low-cost solution for desktop videoconferencing systems. The DVC5 is a PC add-in card which implements a complete video, audio, and ISDN ISDN in full Integrated Services Digital Network Digital telecommunications network that operates over standard copper telephone wires or other media. (Integrated Services Digital Network Integrated services digital network (ISDN) A generic term referring to the integration of communications services transported over digital facilities such as wire pairs, coaxial cables, optical fibers, microwave radio, and satellites. ) communications solution. The board enables OEM's to provide videoconferencing solutions with higher quality than previous generations at a fraction of the cost. A complete design kit is available for OEM customers which includes documentation, schematics, and a complete set of Windows 3.x and Windows95 drivers. The DVC5 is the first product to result from the previously announced IIT-Siemens collaboration. "We want to offer our customers turnkey solutions for desktop videoconferencing. Ease of design and short time-to-market are paramount in the PC marketplace," said Tom Sennhauser, director of marketing, communications products, at Siemens Components, Inc. The DVC5 is based on chips from both IIT and Siemens which enable manufacturers to produce a highly integrated, low cost, single card videoconferencing solution. Combining the communication and the video codec functions on a single PCI (1) (Payment Card Industry) See PCI DSS. (2) (Peripheral Component Interconnect) The most widely used I/O bus (peripheral bus). add-in card produces outstanding quality at a very low cost. Achieving this new level of integration while driving the cost down will spur the growth of the video communications market. According to Chris McNiffe, vice president of sales and marketing for IIT, "Achieving a total component cost less than $250 is key to the next phase of growth of the desktop videoconferencing market." "Our recent survey of the market clearly indicates that the key to rapid growth in videoconferencing is lower prices," confirmed Will Strauss, president of market-watcher Forward Concepts (Tempe, AZ). He went on to say, "The DVC5 reference design will certainly lead to more cost effective videoconferencing products -- which we feel will help fuel expansion of this market." The DVC5 combines IIT's VCP (Video Communications Processor) and VPIC VPIC Vice President in Charge (Video PCI Interface Chip) with Siemens' ISAC-S ISDN interface chips, JADE audio compression DSP, and ARCOFI ARCOFI Audio Ringing CODEC Filter audio codec/speakerphone. Only the addition of a camera and speaker/handset is required to create a sophisticated video communications system. The chipset implements the complete H.320 videoconferencing standard and requires no real-time host processing. Thus the DVC5 can operate on any PCI platform (486 or Pentium based) without burdening the host processor. This frees up the host processor for other host intensive tasks such as required for collaborative computing and data conferencing. IIT previously announced that it has licensed DataBeam's T.123 software toolkit and plans to introduce support for sharing applications over ISDN lines to enable data conferencing in the second quarter of 1996. IIT's programmable VCP implements the video codec and bitstream multiplexer for both standard and proprietary video compression algorithms including H.320, H.324, MPEG-1 and JPEG JPEG in full Joint Photographic Experts Group Standard computer file format for storing graphic images in a compressed form for general use. JPEG images are compressed using a mathematical algorithm. . The companion VPIC enables video data to be transferred directly across the high-speed PCI bus. Siemens' combination of the JADE (PSB7280) and ARCOFI-SP ARCOFI-SP Audio Ringing CODEC Filter with Speakerphone (PSB2163) provide voice compression and enhanced high-performance hands-free speakerphone operation as well as tone generation. The ISAC-S TE (PSB2186) provides the S-interface and is a product used extensively in hundreds of ISDN products worldwide. Windows drivers include a dialer interface and support for directly transfer video across the PCI bus for DCI (Display Control Interface) under Windows 3.1 or DirectDraw under Windows95. About IIT Founded in 1987, Integrated Information Technology, Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., is an innovator in high-performance silicon and software products serving the multimedia computing, communications and consumer marketplaces. IIT is a privately held company privately held company A firm whose shares are held within a relatively small circle of owners and are not traded publicly. with 130 employees worldwide and offices in Boston and London. IIT's website can be found at http://www.iit.com Siemens Components, Inc. (SCI (Scalable Coherent Interface) An IEEE standard for a high-speed bus that uses wire or fiber-optic cable. It can transfer data up to 1GBytes/sec. (hardware) SCI - 1. Scalable Coherent Interface. 2. UART. ), Cupertino, Calif. is a leading supplier of high-technology electronic components. These include components for the automotive, communications, consumer electronics, data processing, PC peripherals, embedded control and memory markets. SCI is the North American arm of Siemens Semiconductor Group, which had sales of $2.9 billion in 1994/1995. The Information Technology Division of Siemens Semiconductor Group, Munich, provides highly integrated electronic components to the communications industry. SCI's website address is http://www.sci.siemens.com CONTACT: Integrated Information Technology, Inc. Stacey O'Connell, 408/727-1885 staceyo@iit.com or Siemens Corporation Jean Stawarz, 408/777-4909 jstawarz@aol.com |
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