Pixel Magic 1000 MIP Imaging Digital Signal Processor Rivals Traditional ASIC Solutions; Pixel Magic's IDSP Enables Programmable Image Processing For Fast And Flexible Digital Office Equipment Design.ANDOVER, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 4, 1996--Pixel Magic, a wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. of Oak Technology, 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 : OAKT) which designs, develops and markets high- performance multimedia semiconductors and related software, today announced the PM-44 Imaging Digital Signal Processor A digital signal processor (DSP) is a specialized microprocessor designed specifically for digital signal processing, generally in real-time computing. Characteristics of typical Digital Signal Processors
IDSP Interim Digital SAR Processor ), the industry's first fully programmable 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 specifically targeted at imaging applications in the digital office equipment market. Based on a single instruction, multiple data path (SIMD (Single Instruction stream Multiple Data stream) A computer that performs one operation on multiple sets of data. It is typically used to add or multiply eight or more sets of numbers at the same time for multimedia encoding and rendering as well as scientific ) architecture, the PM-44 is designed to handle color or monochrome data of any pixel depth. The PM-44 provides 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 developers with the many advantages offered by a programmable solution as compared with custom ASICS or FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) A type of gate array that is programmed in the field rather than in a semiconductor fab. Containing up to hundreds of thousands of gates, there are a variety of FPGA architectures on the market. designs. The price of the PM-44 enables it to span from entry-level to high-end digital office equipment systems such as ink jet and laser printers, fax machines, multifunction peripherals (MFPs), digital copiers and scanners. "The PM-44 makes it possible to implement programmable image processing systems without sacrificing the price or performance of traditional solutions, such as ASICs ASICS Anima Sana in Corpore Sano (Japanese shoe manufacturer; Latin: a sound mind in a sound body) or FPGAs," said Don Shulsinger, executive vice president of Pixel Magic. "The PM-44 processor and our library of microcoded algorithms give manufacturers a head start in developing the image processing portions of new designs. Our IDSP's programmable architecture helps them lower development costs and time-to-market, in addition to providing them the flexibility to make critical changes right up to production and also to provide software-based enhancements after release." With four parallel data paths providing the equivalent of one billion RISC-type instructions per second Instructions per second (IPS) is a measure of a computer's processor speed. Many reported IPS values have represented "peak" execution rates on artificial instruction sequences with few branches, whereas realistic workloads consist of a mix of instructions and even applications, for imaging applications, a single PM-44 has enough processing power to satisfy the image processing requirements of most of today's digital office equipment manufacturers. Multiple parts can be easily daisy chained together to support higher-end systems. "While the PM-44 may not replace the need for all ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) Pronounced "a-sick." A chip that is custom designed for a specific application rather than a general-purpose chip such as a microprocessor. solutions in the near term, the technology and expertise developed by Pixel Magic in the past 24 months make our programmable solutions extremely competitive in both price and performance for the high-volume digital office equipment market," said Shulsinger. LIBRARY OF SOLUTIONS Utilizing a library of downloadable microcode, a single PM-44 device can implement algorithms for scanner, printer, copier, or fax applications, making it an ideal solution for MFPs. Pixel Magic has built up a considerable array of common image processing routines for the PM-44, in addition to which OEMs can develop custom solutions based on proprietary algorithms using in-house design teams or in conjunction with Pixel Magic. HIGH-PERFORMANCE ARCHITECTURE The PM-44 implements sophisticated image processing functions in highly efficient microcode. All instructions are executed in a single clock cycle. All four pipelined data paths can simultaneously execute a data extraction, an ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit) The high-speed CPU circuit that does calculating and comparing. Numbers are transferred from memory into the ALU for calculation, and the results are sent back into memory. Alphanumeric data are sent from memory into the ALU for comparing. operation, a multiply and an insertion operation in a single clock cycle. A high-speed synchronous memory interface reads or writes long word sequences at one clock per transfer. This high degree of parallelism The degree of parallelism (DOP) is a metric which indicates how many operations can be or are being simultaneously executed by a computer. It is especially useful for describing the performance of parallel programs and multi-processor systems. and a clock speed of 66 MHz allow the PM-44 to match or exceed the performance of dedicated silicon solutions. The PM-44 yields a net throughput of 1,000 MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second) The execution speed of a computer. For example, .5 MIPS is 500,000 instructions per second; 100 MIPS is a hundred million instructions per second. for imaging operations. ADVANCED IMAGING ALGORITHMS Pixel Magic's library of imaging functions is comprised of algorithms for four major categories of image processing: scanner/CCD processing, image enhancement/manipulation, halftoning, and compression. Examples of specific algorithms include high-speed color space conversion Changing one type of color-encoded signal into another. Converting from RGB to YUV and back to RGB are common color space conversions when working with video formats (see YUV). Converting from the display color space (RGB) to the printer color space (CMYK) is another common example. , dynamic thresholding, deskewing, noise removal, edge enhancement, error diffusion, resolution enhancement, scaling 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. coding. While most algorithms are implemented in a surprisingly small number of instructions, there is no inherent limit to program size as microcode can be stored in the PM-44's external memory as well as the internal instruction RAM. Any combination of algorithms may be licensed and used to provide specific imaging solutions for such products as high-speed scanners, digital cameras, and document imaging systems. In addition, a microcode development kit is available which allows OEMs to develop and implement proprietary algorithms for the PM-44. "Prior to the PM-44, OEMs used a combination of custom ASICs, FPGAs, and general purpose DSPs or microprocessors to solve their imaging problems. The PM-44 provides a lower-cost, higher-performance, and faster time-to- market solution," said Peter Besen, president of Pixel Magic. "By making available both our library of algorithms and a microcode development kit, we have enabled OEMs to quickly develop products based on a mixture of standard routines and their own custom solutions." "The PM-44 was an obvious choice to accomplish the goals we set for our new Copiscan 8000 Series Scanners," said Keith Guenther, product manager at Bell & Howell's Scanner Division. "Image quality has always been a Bell & Howell strength. Now the PM-44's processing power enables us to achieve an unprecedented level of image enhancement during real-time scanning." "The PM-44 is very price competitive with alternative solutions," said Roland Simonis, project engineer, Electronic Systems, at Bell & Howell's Scanner Division. "We were able to complete our hardware design and prototype fabrication while the algorithm development was still going on instead of having to wait for a custom silicon device to be completed." EASES SYSTEM DESIGN; SPEEDS TIME-TO-MARKET The PM-44 incorporates a simple 16 or 32-bit peripheral interface for use with any standard processor. The PM-44's input and output ports handle synchronous transfer rates of up to 30 MHz with data path widths of 8, 16 or 32 bits. Several I/O modes are supported including Single DMA, External 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 , Burst, and a Video I/F mode. The PM-44 also implements a dedicated 32-bit wide interface to local memory which supports both synchronous pipelined and asynchronous Refers to events that are not synchronized, or coordinated, in time. The following are considered asynchronous operations. The interval between transmitting A and B is not the same as between B and C. The ability to initiate a transmission at either end. SRAM See static RAM. SRAM - static random-access memory devices, providing a cost/performance trade-off opportunity for system designers. PRICING AND AVAILABILITY The PM-44 is available now, operating at a clock rate of 66 MHz. Pricing for the PM-44 is $28 in volume quantities. Microcoded modules of standard image processing functions can be licensed from Pixel Magic. In addition, Pixel Magic has assembled a complete microcode development environment including sample source code, a compiler, software emulator and a PCI-based card used to test OEM-developed code on a real hardware platform. ABOUT PIXEL MAGIC Founded in 1991, Pixel Magic provides advanced image processing silicon to OEMs and technology partners in the digital office equipment market worldwide. Pixel Magic is a wholly owned subsidiary of Oak Technology, Inc. Additional information about Pixel Magic and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at www.pixelmagic.com. ABOUT OAK TECHNOLOGY Founded in 1987, Oak Technology, Inc. designs, develops and markets high-performance multimedia semiconductors and related software to original equipment manufacturers worldwide who serve the multimedia PC, digital video consumer electronics, and digital office equipment markets. It has subsidiaries in Japan (Oak Technology K.K.), Taiwan (Oak Technology Taiwan) and Andover, Massachusetts (Pixel Magic). The Company completed its initial public offering in February 1995. Additional information about Oak Technology and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at www.oaktech.com. -0- Note to Editors: Oak Technology and the Oak logo are registered trademarks of Oak Technology, Inc. Pixel Magic is a trademark of Pixel Magic Inc., a subsidiary of Oak Technology. All other registered trademarks and trademarks belong to their respective holders. CONTACT: Oak Technology Inc. Scott Alberts, 408/737-0888 scotta@oaktech.com or Miller/Shandwick Technologies Jeff Lettes/Staci Sheppard, 415/962-9550 or Pixel Magic Don Shulsinger, 508/470-8830 |
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