ISD's Chipcorder Technology Featured In Yes! Entertainment's Yak
Bak SFX; ISD Chip Enables High-Quality Sound For Innovative
Children's Toy
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 10, 1996--ISD (Information Storage Devices, Inc.),(NASDAQ:ISDI), a leading supplier of semiconductor voice record and playback solutions, today announced that ISD's ChipCorder devices are being integrated into the Yak Bak SFX toy from Yes! Entertainment, a Pleasanton,Calif.-based company that creates educational and entertainment products for children and teens.
The Yak Bak SFX is a handheld toy about the size of a pager designed for children 8 to 14 years of age. The toy contains the ISD1110, ISD's 10-second chip enabling "Say and Play" record and playback capabilities that allows a child to press a button, record a message up to ten seconds in length, and then instantly listen to the recording played back in his or her own voice. The toy also offers a "Warp Dial" that changes the sound of a recorded voice from a low
bass to a chirpy alto and a library of stored sound effects such as a giggle, a drum beat, or electric guitar.
"For the record and playback feature, we were looking for a solid-state, single chip solution that offered superior sound reproduction and consumed very little power and space," said Tom Fritz, vice president of marketing at Yes! Entertainment. "After studying ISD's ChipCorder product line in detail, we realized that they provided the best performance and sound quality compared to other solutions we evaluated. The result is that, month by month, the Yak
Bak SFX is one of the strongest-selling products of its kind -- and we expect it to continue to be strong throughout 1996."
"ISD's record and playback feature is a natural application for children's toys, games and learning products because of the fascination children have with hearing their own voice," said David Angel, president and CEO of ISD. "More and more, companies developing toys and other consumer products are discovering that the addition of voice tremendously appeals to users because it adds a unique charm and an element of personal interaction."
The Yak Bak SFX is available at toy stores and retails for $14.99. ChipCorder Technology
ISD's patented ChipCorder technology enables a single-chip solution for voice recording and playback in a variety of consumer, communications and industrial applications. It uses a proprietary "multilevel" storage methodology in which one of more than 250 distinct voltage levels are stored per memory cell. This provides approximately eight times more storage space for any given memory size than the alternative two-level, digital storage technology. ChipCorder
technology enables voice and audio signals to be stored directly in their natural form into nonvolatile EEPROM memory cells, eliminating the need for external A/D and D/A circuits. This delivers a single-chip, solid-state solution that requires no software, unlike other alternatives which are more difficult to integrate.
Furthermore, ChipCorder technology offers high-quality, voice reproduction because the voice signal is stored in its direct form and not encoded or compressed. It is the only single-chip, non-volatile voice solution available. Recorded messages are retained after batteries wear out. ChipCorder devices can be recorded and re-recorded reliably over 100,000 times.
To date, ChipCorder technology has been incorporated into hundreds of products, including cellular phones, pagers, personal voice organizers, telephone answering devices, voice "message pads," greeting cards, games, toys,interactive books, alarms, point-of-sale displays, novelty items and personalized gifts. It is also found in industrial announcement/annunciator systems, instrumentation, and building security systems. About ISD
ISD designs, develops and markets integrated circuit solutions for voice applications in the consumer, communications and industrial markets. The company is located at 2045 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, Calif., 95125, USA. Telephone: (408) 369-2400. Fax: (408) 369-2422. World Wide Web home page: isd.com.
NOTE TO EDITORS: ChipCorder is a registered trademark of ISD. All other products are trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective companies.
CONTACT: ISD
Karin Bootsma, 408/369-2447
kboostma@isd.com
or
Walt & Company Communications, Inc.
Heather Prophet/Dean Rodgers, 408/496-0900
hprophet@walt.com |
