Xionics Receives Notice of Allowance of XipChip Patent
BURLINGTON, MASS. (Nov. 23) BUSINESS WIRE -Nov. 23, 1998--Xionics
Document Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:XION) today announced that the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has allowed Xionics' application
for a patent on direct memory access (DMA) technology that was
developed in the process of designing XipChip(r), Xionics' innovative
core-plus-ASIC processor chip for multifunction peripheral devices
(MFPs). The patent is likely to be issued within the next few months.
When issued, the new patent will be Xionics' first on a hardware
design. The subject matter of the allowed patent application is a
system and method for providing high-speed access to a common memory by
a number of distinct processing units. Xionics' approach prevents
memory bottlenecks and minimizes latency time through its unique method
of allowing each processing unit access to memory. This technology
formed the basis for XipChip's DMA unit, which enables an MFP to
perform two or more truly simultaneous functions (e.g. printing a page
and receiving a fax) on a single, cost-effective processor.
XipChip, fabricated for Xionics by IBM Microelectronics of Burlington,
Vt., incorporates an IBM PowerPC 401 processor core, a RAMBUS memory
interface, compression hardware including the world's fastest JBIG, and
Xionics' proprietary image processing logic for low-memory print, copy,
"mopy," scan and fax functions. XipChip is the processor in the Ricoh
Bizworks 406 printer-copier, which began shipping to customers in
October.
"We believe that the market for MFPs is expanding dramatically, and
have developed XipChip specifically for the needs of that market," said
Pete Simone, Xionics' president and CEO. "Our XipChip is distinguished
by its ability to deliver true concurrency of multiple operations on an
MFP containing a single processor chip. The USPTO's action in allowing
a patent on our foundation DMA architecture underscores the strength
and uniqueness of our MFP offering."
When issued, the newly allowed patent is expected to be the sixth
patent in Xionics' intellectual property portfolio. Xionics already
holds four patents on imaging technology used in its industry-leading
page description language interpreters (PDLs). All four patents cover
technology that has shipped as standard features of Xionics'
IPS-PRINT(tm) PostScript(tm)- and PCL-compatible PDLs at least since
1996.
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