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Technology Stocks : e.Digital Corporation(EDIG) - Embedded Digital Technology -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BuzzVA who wrote (7321)	8/18/1999 2:04:00 AM
From: Jim	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18366

this may go good with the last few posts Texas Instruments, Liquid Audio, Fraunhofer and SanDisk Team to Offer First Interoperable DSP-Based Solution for Secure Music Downloads Off the Internet Onto Portable Audio Players Portable Player Manufacturers Can Begin Production Today for Christmas HOUSTON, June 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN - news), Liquid Audio Inc., Fraunhofer and SanDisk Corp. (Nasdaq: SNDK - news) today announced they have teamed to offer the first complete solution for the secure downloading of music off the Internet onto portable audio players. The programmable DSP- based solution is the first to meet the newly-released Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) guidelines for digital music portable devices, and is available today to enable manufacturers to develop secure players in time for Christmas 1999. TI, Liquid Audio, Fraunhofer and SanDisk provide the leading technology for each segment of the portable audio solution. Together, the companies are delivering an openly-licensable security solution based on TI's programmable low-power digital signal processors (DSPs) and Liquid Audio's secure portable player platform (SP3) that improves the consumer experience for digital music and enables interoperability among secure portable music devices. ''We recognized early on that the market would need a way to securely download music off the Internet, and that the solution would have to offer adaptability, low-power and high performance,'' said Gary Johnson, TI's DSP audio business manager and member of the SDMI group that drafted the specification guidelines. ''TI's programmable, low-power DSPs are ideal for portable audio, which is why so many of the manufacturers and technology providers, such as e.Digital Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: EDIG - news), want to use them.'' The companies helped define the SDMI's inter-industry guidelines for a secure solution for the digital music market. The guidelines, released today, will enable a consumer-focused solution for delivering music to portable devices. The SDMI is seeking to stop the unauthorized copying and downloading of music off the Internet by building security measures such as watermarking, encryption and decryption into compact discs, electronic music distribution (EMD), personal computer hosts and portable players. The SDMI said it will support all audio compression formats that offer secure download measures. TI, the world leader in DSP, will provide DSPs and a complete library of software decoders; Liquid Audio offers the software and services for secure digital delivery, download and portability of music; Fraunhofer developed the popular MP3 and AAC audio compression formats; and SanDisk produces the flash memory cards used in the portable players. ''Liquid Audio's goal is to enable record labels and music retailers to safely leverage the Internet to promote and sell music to the many consumers who want to download high-quality music and enjoy it in secure portable music players,'' said Phil Wiser, Liquid Audio Chief Technology Officer and an editor of the SDMI specification. ''Together, Liquid Audio, TI, Fraunhofer and SanDisk are delivering the first openly-licensable security solution that meets the requirements of the music industry, supports leading music formats and enables a range of music devices to thrive, as is consistent with the goals of SDMI.'' With SanDisk's removable, reusable and rugged CompactFlash(TM) (CF(TM)) memory cards, consumers can increase capacity up to 160 megabytes for more than two and a half hours of playback time. Because SanDisk flash memory is solid-state (no moving parts), playback is never subject to skipping during jogging or other exercise, and will never deteriorate from multiple re- recording and playback. ''The fact that all SanDisk products shipped-to-date offer unique serialization ensures that any SanDisk memory card will operate in an SDMI environment,'' said Dan Auclair, Senior Vice President of Business Development and Licensing at SanDisk. ''Using TI's DSPs, we provide OEMs a quick-path to market with our MicroOS(TM) file management system interfacing with SanDisk's Compact Flash,'' said Fred Falk, President and CEO of e.Digital Corporation. ''Just as Liquid Audio supports multiple music formats, we use TI's DSPs and our software to recognize and play a range of secure audio formats. We are excited to work with these industry leaders and be one of the first to adopt the new SDMI- compliant solution for portable music devices.''