| May 27, 1998
For Further Information Contact: Accolades
Alt.: Linda
Lyon, Media
Photograph attached or available upon request. In Brief:
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PROGRAMMABLE
PLATFORM TO SUPPORT A WIDE RANGE OF DIGITAL CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
VLIW architecture, compiler and software tools allow for a scaleable, cost effective and easily adaptable platform as developed by Equator Technologies, Inc. May 27, 1998, Seattle, Washington -- Manufacturers of high-definition televisions (HDTV), set-top boxes (STB) and 3D games must meet consumer demand for interactivity, quality, performance, and functions found in today's personal computer at a lower price point. A technology gap exists between what is needed by the manufacturer and what current technology can provide. Equator Technologies, Inc. is developing a programmable platform to unify the processing of audio, video, communications and 3D graphics for computers and consumer electronics. The coming wave of digital consumer entertainment devices offers major opportunities for enhanced digital content and delivery in consumer digital electronics. "Equator’s solution is a high performance programmable architecture for consumer electronic products," states John Setel O’Donnell, president and co-founder of Equator Technologies, Inc. "High-level language programming allows a single processor architecture to be used in multiple applications." O’Donnell is a recognized pioneer in VLIW architecture and Trace Scheduling compiler technologies. Equator Technologies’s focus is to replace hard-wired fixed-function MPEG platforms with a high performance programmable engine. This engine can be designed into multiple applications including HDTV, STB, 3D games, teleconferencing, interactive virtual worlds, and video image processing. "The challenge is to make application programming easier while maintaining performance. With today’s current technology, an engineer developing product must go to the machine level to program or program in a high-level language and sacrifice performance," explains Yongmin Kim, Ph.D, and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Director of the Image Computing Systems Laboratory at the University of Washington. "Programmability ultimately affects productivity and the ability to support a wide range of digital consumer electronics." Equator Technologies’s use of parallel very-long-instruction word (VLIW) architecture leaves the complexity of managing parallelism to the compiler, not the chip. This scalable architecture is as fast as application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) with minimal cost difference for a concurrency of media applications. Equator’s solutions are designed to be fully programmable for adaptation in emerging markets by using VLIW high-level language for rapid prototyping and end product delivery. "Partnering early on with manufacturers of consumer digital products is a key to Equator Technologies’s success," states Ron Bell, Equator Technologies’s chief executive officer. "Our partnerships enable us to supply manufacturers with a product that meets their cost point. Ultimately, software tools that allow multiple uses for the same architecture platform provide for a broad range of end applications. The key differentiating factor for Equator is our early focus on both end applications and software." Equator Technologies, Inc. is a semiconductor systems company with offices in Austin, Texas; Campbell, California; Seattle, Washington, and Tokyo, Japan. Formed in 1996, the Company develops and sells semiconductors, applications and systems software, and reference designs. Management includes Ron Bell as chief executive officer; co-founder John Setel O’Donnell as president, and Hisayuki Suzuki as chief financial officer. The company has financial backing from several consumer electronics manufacturers and venture capital groups. |