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Texas Instruments Solves the Software Challenge for OEMs With the Launch of Supported, Optimized Digital Media Software

Posted on: Monday, 6 March 2006, 09:00 CST

HOUSTON, March 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Simplifying access to the most advanced, production-ready software for digital media applications, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) today launched a complete portfolio of TI- developed digital media software with published pricing for the mass market. Optimized for TI's portfolio of digital signal processor (DSP) and systems-on- chip (SoC) platforms, TI's productized digital media software, includes encoders, decoders and other algorithms, which can be rapidly integrated into product designs to significantly reduce development cost, risk and years in engineering time, with full support from TI's Authorized Software Providers (ASPs). For a complete list of available software, see http://www.ti.com/digitalmediasoftwarepr .

TI's new productized digital media software offering is comprised of a complete portfolio of audio, video and voice components including up to MPEG-4 720p HD encode/decode, H.264 BP encode/decode, and Windows Media Audio encode/decode. Current digital media software offerings support TI's DaVinci(TM) processors, as well as TI's TMS320C6000(TM) and TMS320C5000(TM) DSP platforms, and will be extended to new TI platforms as they are introduced to the market.

With TI's new production-ready digital media software offering and support network, OEMs will have the tested and proven tools they need to focus on product differentiation instead of the development and debugging of software components. Furthermore, customers can easily evaluate this digital media software for free and execute a product license for the components that meet their requirements.

"The Slingbox(TM) that is available on the market today uses the Windows Media 9 encoder, which TI's software team initially developed and tuned for the DSP-based digital media processor that resides in the Slingbox itself," said Bhupen Shah, co-founder, chief operating officer and vice president of engineering, Sling Media. "By taking advantage of TI's software, our engineering team was able to focus their development efforts on the specific algorithmic and performance optimizations needed for the Slingbox's proprietary streaming technology -- Sling Stream(TM), thereby reducing our time to market by several months for this first product."

High-quality Digital Media Software Products

Each algorithm within the digital media software offering has been developed based on the eXpressDSP(TM) algorithm interface standard and has been rigorously system tested using thousands of test vectors to ensure quality and robustness. Increasing the reliability and quality of the software, TI constantly maintains and updates the software to significantly reduce risk for production schedules. Additionally, OEMs benefit from complete documentation and user guides, which includes usage examples, release notes and datasheets.

According to Berkley Design Technology, Inc., "By providing its own software components, TI will enable system developers to use off-the-shelf software with greater ease and confidence."

Easy Evaluation and Adoption

Customers are able to evaluate digital media software at no charge through a simple click-wrap license and receive four free hours of support from the ASP of their choice. Following the evaluation period, customers can purchase the software directly from their ASP, who will provide ongoing direct production support. This way, customers have a single point of contact for both the purchase and support of their selected TI digital media software. The simplicity of the evaluation and purchase of optimized software ensures customers are able to greatly accelerate their time-to-market and ease of implementation, instead of having to waste months evaluating and acquiring software from multiple suppliers.

Flexible Licensing Options

Increasing the accessibility of each software component, TI set up flexible licensing options that give customers the ability to minimize their upfront investment. OEMs can choose between a low up front fee with royalty payments, low royalty payments with additional up-front fee. Additionally, select software components are available at a one-time upfront payment with no associated royalty fees. Discounts are offered for the purchase of bundles of digital media software, which enables customers to increase the functionality of their product lines at a reduced cost.

Customized Support from a Network of TI's Experienced Partners

To ensure extensive and qualified support, TI has established a network of select ASPs from its Third Party Network that will both license and support TI's digital media software. ASPs include ATEME, eInfochips Inc., eSOL Co. Ltd., Ingenient Technologies, Inc, Ittiam Systems, Logic Product Development, MPC Data and Wintech Digital Systems Technology Corp.

Availability and Pricing

Beginning today, customers who are interested in using TI's software may contact TI to obtain software for free evaluation, pricing information and receive guidance for selecting an ASP for support. Following the evaluation period, customers can license the software directly from their ASP, who will provide ongoing direct production support. See http://www.ti.com/digitalmediasoftwarepr .

About Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP and analog technologies to meet our customers' real-world signal processing requirements. In addition to Semiconductors, the company's businesses include Sensors & Controls, and Educational & Productivity Solutions. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries.

Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information is located on the World Wide Web at http://www.ti.com/ .

TRADEMARKS

eXpressDSP, DaVinci, TMS320C6000 and TMS320C5000 are trademarks of Texas Instruments. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Texas Instruments Incorporated

CONTACT: Lisa Ferrara of Texas Instruments Incorporated,+1-281-274-4212, or lferrara@ti.com ; or Kellie Potucek, +1-713-513-9576, orkpotucek@golinharris.com , for Texas Instruments Incorporated. Please do notpublish these numbers or email addresses.

Web site: http://www.ti.com/http://www.ti.com/digitalmediasoftwarepr

Source: PRNewswire

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