Applied Magic introducing a home entertainment device with a wavelet video codec. I wonder what it has over CUBE's MPEG1 codec, besides a lower compression ratio........................
Applied Magic Announces Technology Breakthrough with New Home
Entertainment and Multimedia Device
Applied Magic's Innovative Technology Brings Hollywood Into The Home.
SAN DIEGO, Dec. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Applied Magic, Inc. today announced
that they are finalizing development of a versatile new home entertainment
system that will enable consumers to create, manage and view multimedia
content without the need for a personal computer.
The standalone device is designed for the living room entertainment
environment and will enable consumers to digitize, edit and create special
effects with home movies and still photographs on their television sets.
Final productions can be recorded back to tape, printed on a photo-quality
printer, or emailed to family and friends. The device has full Internet
capability and an expansion bay for a DVD-ROM drive.
"It's really amazing when you consider that consumers could more easily
edit home movies in the days of 8mm film cameras than they can with today's
camcorders," said Robert Wallin, President and CEO of Applied Magic. "Our
system has taken the old 'cut and splice' technology to a whole new level by
allowing consumers to digitally edit and create special effects that will
rival those of the best Hollywood studios," Wallin added.
"There is a lot of hype today about the convergence of the television and
the PC," said Kevin Mosher, Vice President of Marketing for Applied Magic.
"Our device is better defined as a hybrid digital system that delivers a
variety of entertainment functions to the end user. Why would consumers
purchase WebTV, a DVD player and a game platform when they could more
economically get a single box that does all three, plus a whole lot more?"
To achieve consumer-level pricing, Applied Magic is working with San Jose-
based Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE: CDN) to develop custom integrated
circuits (ICs) for their device, and they will be using Analog Devices, Inc.'s
low cost wavelet video compression technology. The company will begin
shipping the first of these products in early 1998.
About Cadence
Cadence Design Systems, Inc. provides comprehensive services and
technology for the product development requirements of the world's leading
electronics companies. Cadence is the largest supplier of software tools and
professional services used to accelerate and manage the design of
semiconductors, computer systems, networking and telecommunications equipment,
consumer electronics, and a variety of other electronic-based products. With
more than 3,300 employees and 1996 annual sales of $742 million, Cadence has
sales offices, design centers, and research facilities around the world. The
company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. and traded on the New York Stock
Exchange under the symbol CDN. More information about the company, its
products and services may be obtained from the World Wide Web at
cadence.com.
About Analog Devices
With sales of $1.2 billion for fiscal year 1997, Analog Devices
(NYSE: ADI) is a leading manufacturer of precision high-performance integrated
circuits used in analog and digital signal processing applications.
Headquartered in Norwood, Massachusetts, the company employs approximately
7,500 people worldwide and has manufacturing facilities in Massachusetts,
California, North Carolina, Ireland, the Philippines and Taiwan.
About Applied Magic, Inc.
Applied Magic, Inc. is a San Diego-based company specializing in the
development, licensing and marketing of powerful and intuitive solutions for
professional video editors, audio engineers and multimedia producers. The
company manufactures and markets software and board-level audio and video non-
linear editing solutions for the WindowsNT, Windows 95 and DEC Alpha computer
platforms. For more information contact Kevin Mosher, vice president of
marketing and operations, at 1-888-MAGIC-55, by email at
klm@applied-magic.com, or visit the web site at www.applied-magic.com.
SOURCE Applied Magic, Inc.
/CONTACT: Kevin Mosher of Applied Magic, 760-931-6417, ext. 362, or e-
mail, klm@applied-magic.com; or Jim Lochmiller of Cadence Design Systems,
408-944-8095, or e-mail, jimlk@cadence.com; or Dave Jackson of Analog Devices,
617-461-3136, or e-mail, david-b.jackson@analog.com/
/Website: http: www.applied-magic.com/
(ADI CDN) |
