Maverick Opens a New Chapter in Internet Appliances With RCA eBook; Cirrus Logic's Maverick Momentum Moves Beyond Internet Audio Mastery.Business Editors and High-Tech Writers NOTE TO MEDIA: Photo is available in a Smart News Release(TM) on Business Wire's Home Page at www.businesswire.com AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 21, 2000 Cirrus Logic (Nasdaq:CRUS) announced today that its Maverick(tm) processor continues its expansion from its leadership position in portable Internet audio devices into additional emerging Internet markets with the Maverick EP7212's debut in the REB1100 RCA See RCA connector and video/TV history. eBook, announced by Thomson Consumer Electronics today. The Maverick processor has demonstrated considerable breadth in the consumer appliance market in recent months with product announcements that include Ceiva's Internet picture frame See digital picture frame. , S3 Diamond Rio's networked home Internet jukebox and PhatNoise's digital audio system. "Maverick's positive Internet momentum and broad proliferation demonstrates that it is a great chip for wide assortment of Internet appliances," said Will Strauss of Forward Concepts, president of market research firm Forward Concepts. "The RCA eBook is another example where Maverick was the ideal solution." Similar to its early entry into the Internet audio market, the Maverick processor enables the second generation of Internet products such as the REB1100 eBook, just as consumer interest and adoption begins to swell. The Association of American Publishers (body, publication) Association of American Publishers - (AAP) A group engaged in standardisation efforts in document preparation. predicts 10 percent of all books will be electronic by 2005, while Andersen Consulting forecasts that 28 million people will spend $2.3 billion annually on electronic content by 2005. eBooks are book-shaped, portable electronic reading tablets that allow consumers to download digitized content to read at their convenience. Unlike earlier entries, RCA's eBook can directly download content, since it comes equipped with its own built-in Maverick processor enabled 56K modem. The electronic device is capable of holding about 20 books simultaneously and allows the reader to view text both in daylight and starlight by utilizing a backlit An LCD screen that has its own light source from the back of the screen, making the background brighter and characters appear sharper. , touch-sensitive liquid crystal display liquid crystal display (LCD) Optoelectronic device used in displays for watches, calculators, notebook computers, and other electronic devices. Current passed through specific portions of the liquid crystal solution causes the crystals to align, blocking the passage of light. that enhances reading in any lighting situation. The REB1100 makes it easy to take a library of published material virtually anywhere, weighing just 17 ounces. Consumers will also enjoy up to 40 hours of eBook use, thanks in part to the fact that the Maverick processor consumes very little battery power. Leveraging the Maverick processor's Internet audio leadership, the REB1100 was also designed with Internet audio hardware ready to be utilized at a future date. "We designed the Maverick processor particularly to drive the growing consumer Internet appliance market," said Matt Perry, vice president and general manager of Cirrus Logic's Embedded Processor Division. "Manufacturers can leverage our Internet audio leadership and Internet connectivity to bring their new products to the market quickly." Maverick Efficiently Enables REB1100 Features -- Direct Internet connectivity provided by a 56K soft modem running on the Maverick processor's 74MHz (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. RISC processor core. -- Multiple-standard (mp3, WMA (Windows Media Audio) An audio compression method from Microsoft. Known originally as MSAudio, this proprietary format competes with the MP3 and AAC methods. WMA encodes rapidly and is known to be especially effective at low bit rates. , AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) An audio compression technology that is part of the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 standards. AAC, especially MPEG-4 AAC, provides greater compression and better sound quality than MP3, which also came out of the MPEG standard. ) Internet audio decoding capability and DAC See D/A converter and discretionary access control. DAC - Digital to Analog Converter interface built-in to the EP7212 provides potential for future software upgrades. -- High resolution 5.5 inch display driven by the EP7212's programmable on-chip LCD controller, which reduces cost and the number of chips required. Maverick Maverick is Cirrus Logic's brand of Market Specific Processors(tm) (MSP (1) (Management Service Provider or Managed Service Provider) An organization that manages a customer's computer systems and networks which are either located on the customer's premises or at a third-party datacenter. ) for Internet appliances. The system-on-chip architecture utilizes an ARM core combined with application specific functions. Maverick processors provide customers with a wide variety of choices for operating systems including Linux, WinCE, eCOS, EPOC A 32-bit operating system for handheld devices from Symbian Ltd., London, (www.symbian.com). Used in Psion and other handheld computers, it supports Java applications, e-mail, fax, infrared exchange, data synchronization with PCs and includes a suite of PIM and productivity applications. , Palm OS and VxWorks. For more information on Maverick processors visit http://www.maverickaudio.com. Cirrus Logic Cirrus Logic is a premier supplier of high-performance analog and 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 chip solutions for Internet entertainment electronics. Building on its global market share leadership in audio integrated circuits and its rich mixed-signal patent portfolio, the company targets high-volume audio, storage and communications applications. Cirrus Logic sells its products under the Crystal(R), Maverick(tm) and 3Ci(tm) brands as well as its own name. Founded in 1984 in Silicon Valley, Cirrus Logic operates from headquarters in Austin, Texas, and major sites located in Fremont, Calif., and Broomfield, Colo., as well as offices in Europe, Japan and Asia. More information about Cirrus Logic is available at www.cirrus.com. Safe Harbor Provision Any forward-looking statements and all other statements that may be made in this news release that are not historical facts are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. Please refer to Cirrus Logic's current Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for more information on the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ. Note to editors: Cirrus Logic and Crystal are registered trademarks of Cirrus Logic Inc. All other product names noted herein may be trademarks of their respective holders. Note: A Photo is available at URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. : http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.082100/bb2 |
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