Visual programming software available for Ariel's C80-based imaging board; Ariel signs exclusive licensing agreement with Logical Vision Ltd.CRANBURY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 1, 1996--Ariel Corp. (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 :ADSP ADSP - AppleTalk Data Stream Protocol ) announced the availability of Logical Vision Ltd.'s WiT visual programming software environment for Ariel's TMS TMS Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (alternative medicine for depression) TMS Test Match Special (sports - cricket) TMS Texas Motor Speedway TMS Transportation Management System TMS Toyota Motor Sales 320C80-based Griffin image processing and machine vision platform. The WiT environment greatly simplifies the development of image processing software, targeting applications such as machine vision, industrial automation, biomedical bi·o·med·i·cal adj. 1. Of or relating to biomedicine. 2. Of, relating to, or involving biological, medical, and physical sciences. analysis and scientific research. The exclusive licensing agreement signed by Ariel and Logical Vision marks the first and only port of the WiT software to a C80-based PCI (1) (Payment Card Industry) See PCI DSS. (2) (Peripheral Component Interconnect) The most widely used I/O bus (peripheral bus). imaging board. WiT is an integrated visual data flow development environment that encompasses prototyping, testing and packaging. WiT application developers need not have expertise in C, assembler, macro or script programming. They intuitively build their applications by selecting functional blocks from the WiT libraries, and connecting those blocks to form graphs that are similar to flow charts and block diagrams. WiT graphs can be executed continuously, with single-step control, and with breakpoints. WiT provides advanced visualization tools that enable programmers to view graphs, images, volumes, surfaces and arbitrary data structures. In other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke" put differently , everything that programmers need to process, display and print their results. WiT supports three levels of image processing application development: Novice programmers who want to experiment with algorithms can take advantage of WiT's block diagram editor; more advanced programmers who want to add a production user interface can utilize WiT's Visual Basic support; and C language programmers who want to optimize existing C80-resident library functions or develop new ones can utilize WiT's integrated C language programming environment. Griffin acts as an image processing server and accelerator for client applications that are developed using the WiT programming environment. The WiT development environment resides on the PC host under Windows 95 or Windows NT. WiT client applications and accompanying user interfaces, which also reside on the host, make calls to WiT image processing libraries, which reside on the Griffin server. WiT client applications may also reside on remote hosts, invoking Griffin imaging services via a local area network. The WiT development environment comes with drivers that enable it to utilize Griffin's video input and digital camera interface modules. A driver is also available that enables the WiT software to utilize Griffin's on-board video RAMDAC (Random Access Memory Digital to Analog Converter) The VGA controller chip that maintains the color palette and converts data from memory into analog signals for the monitor. RAMDAC - Random Access Memory Digital-to-Analog Converter . Logical Vision Ltd. President Terry Arden said: "We are pleased to be working with Ariel to make WiT available for the Griffin board. Griffin's C80 processing engine, high-bandwidth PCI host interface and video I/O (Input/Output) The transfer of data between the CPU and a peripheral device. Every transfer is an output from one device and an input to another. See PC input/output. I/O - Input/Output facilities make it ideal as a server for accelerating host-based Wit client applications. We expect the C80 and Griffin to be major players in mid-range imaging applications, especially when coupled with the WiT development environment." Added John Bush, product manager for Ariel's Machine Vision and Image Processing Group: "WiT and Griffin make a potent imaging combination. With Griffin, we've already been able to stake out a solid niche as an accelerator for mid-range imaging applications. "The WiT visual data flow environment will make it easier than ever for application developers with tight time-to-market constraints to leverage the processing power and flexibility of the C80 and Griffin." The WiT environment, together with the Griffin server software, costs $3,295 and will be available in Q4 1996 from Ariel. More on Griffin Griffin is a PCI-bus plug-in board based on Texas Instruments' TMS320C80 parallel 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
To support memory expansion, I/O, and other peripheral options, Griffin also provides a high-performance stackable mezzanine bus interface, complete with a family of analog and digital video I/O and memory expansion modules. Griffin's digital camera interface, GMI-DCAM, links 8-, 16- and 32-bit digital cameras with Griffin's high-speed image processing engine The image processing engine, or image processor, is - next to the optics and the image sensor - one of the most important components of a digital camera and plays a vital role in creating the digital image. . GMI-DCAM supports line- and area-scan cameras from a broad range of popular manufacturers. The module provides two separate 16-bit, 40-MHz digital camera data channels, which may be combined into a single 32-bit channel. Griffin's video input module, GMI-VIDEO-IN, supports Y/Cr/Cb, RGB and monochrome video modes, and features programmable hue, brightness, contrast, and saturation. It converts analog video signals (component or composite video in NTSC (National TV Standards Committee) The committee that developed the television standards for the U.S, which are also used in Canada, Japan, South Korea and several Central and South American countries. Both the committee and the standard are called "NTSC. or PAL format) to a 16-bit Y/Cr/Cb or 24-bit RGB format. Griffin's video output module, GMI-VIDEO-OUT, enables Griffin to output video to cameras, VCRs, television monitors and virtual reality glasses. The module provides both PAL and NTSC CCR 1. CCR - condition code register. 2. CCR - (Database) concurrency control and recovery. 601 video outputs and supports 15-bit RGB, 24-bit RGB and 16-bit YCrCb data formats. The output module also includes a 1-Mbyte video RAM frame buffer. Griffin's base memory configuration (8 Mbytes of DRAM and 4 Mbytes of VRAM See video RAM. VRAM - video random-access memory ) can be extended by adding two types of memory expansion boards. The first provides an additional 8 or 32 Mbytes of DRAM. The second type of module provides either 16 or 32 Mbytes of zero-wait-state synchronous DRAM. Griffin also provides an on-board RGB video output based on the Texas Instruments TVP TVP abbr. textured vegetable protein 3025 RAMDAC. It supports resolutions of up to 1600 x 1280 at 16 bits/pixel with up to 65,336 colors, and 1024 x 768 at 24 bits/pixel with up to 16 million colors. Software support for Griffin includes drivers for Windows NT, Windows 95 and Windows 3.x; a broad selection of host C compilers; a C80 ANSI C compiler; native PCIbus and external JTAG (Joint Test Action Group) An IEEE standard for boundary scan technology. See scan technology. JTAG - Joint Test Action Group in-circuit emulators for both PC and SPARC (Scalable Performance ARChitecture) A family of RISC CPUs from Sun that runs mostly under Sun's Solaris, but also under Linux and BSD operating systems. After development began in the mid-1980s by David Patterson of the University of California at Berkeley and Bill (external only) hosts; and a comprehensive C80-optimized image processing library. More on Logical Vision Ltd. Logical Vision Ltd., based in Vancouver, B.C., is a software development company specializing in networked, visual programming technology for image processing. WiT and the suite of WiT hardware servers provide a CAD-like development package with more than 200 proven building blocks for industrial automation, biomedical analysis and scientific research. For more information on WiT, please contact Logical Vision Ltd. at Suite 265, 4299 Canada Way, Burnaby, B.C. V5G 1H3, Canada. Phone: 604/435-2587. Fax: 604/435-8840. E-mail: lvision@unixg.ubc.ca. World Wide Web: http://www.interchg.ubc.ca/lvision. More on Ariel Ariel Corp., based in Cranbury, offers a complete range of advanced 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 hardware and software. Griffin, the heart of Ariel's imaging and machine vision systems, is a PCIbus product based on Texas Instruments' TMS320C80. The Griffin line includes analog and digital video I/O plus complete software, targeting high-speed inspection, alignment, pattern verification and motion control. For more information on the WiT development environment and Ariel Griffin server, please contact Ariel Corp. at 2540 Route 130, Cranbury, N.J. 08512. Phone: 609/860-2900. Fax: 609/860-1155. E-mail: ariel@ariel.com. World Wide Web: http://www.ariel.com. CONTACT: Ariel Corp., Cranbury Steve Curtin, 609/860-2900 or Davis-Marrin Communications, San Diego Ken Marrin, 619/573-0736 |
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