( BW)(ZORAN/INTEL)(ZRAN)(INTC) Zoran and Intel Cooperate in the
Delivery of Hardware DVD Solutions on the PC
Business Editors
INTEL DEVELOPER'S CONFERENCE
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--February 17, 1998--
Vaddis4VMI Daughter Card Reference Design Adds Plug-In DVD Capabilities To
Intel740-based Boards For Less Than $30
Zoran Corporation (NASDAQ:ZRAN), the leading provider of integrated circuits and
software for digital video and audio enabled by compression, announced today a new daughter
card reference design that adds hardware DVD capabilities to Intel's new Intel740 graphics chip
for a Bill Of Materials (BOM) of less than $30. Based on Zoran's highly-integrated Vaddis DVD
decoder and Zoran's SoftDVD Navigator, the new Vaddis4VMI daughter card reference design
uses only the Vaddis decoder, a single 16Mbit SDRAM IC and a 27MHz clock oscillator to
form a truly low-cost, high-performance DVD solution for PCs. Developed in conjunction with
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) for their new graphics chip also announced today, the new Vaddis4VMI
is yet another step in the Intel/Zoran cooperative effort to bring DVD solutions to the PC. Zoran's
new Vaddis4VMI daughter card reference design will also be compatible with other graphics
chips which support the VMI standard.
"Zoran's VMI daughter card provides a low-cost, high-performance solution to add DVD to
Intel740 based designs," said Jeff Bader, Director of System Integration, Intel Graphic
Components Division. "We are pleased to be working with Zoran to offer such a high-quality
integrated DVD solution at a cost that can address the performance PC segment."
"We are very happy to add our Vaddis and SoftDVD capabilities to Intel's new graphics
processor," said Dr. Levy Gerzberg, president and CEO of Zoran Corporation. "We believe the
availability of Zoran's Vaddis4VMI in conjunction with the Intel740 will accelerate the
incorporation of hardware DVD into the PC environment. The development of the Vaddis4VMI
DVD reference design is yet another step in Zoran's overall commitment to provide both
hardware and software solutions to the DVD market, including the Vaddis DVD decoder
hardware solution, our all-software SoftDVD, software/hardware hybrid solutions, and
DVD-related cores."
On the Vaddis4VMI Reference Design
Vaddis4VMI is a DVD daughter card design initially targeted for Intel740 based PCI and
AGP graphics cards and based on the VMI 1.4 standard. VMI (Video Module Interface)
provides a direct bi-directional high bandwidth connection for both DVD data and video from
Vaddis to the graphics controller. Systems designed to take advantage of VMI can achieve high
DVD performance at a lower cost than PCI solutions, because they do not require a dedicated
PCI slot to add DVD functionality or cables to run from board to board. Furthermore, VMI
eliminates loading of the PCI bus with video thereby improving system performance.
The complete daughter card design includes the Vaddis4VMI software drivers and Zoran's
SoftDVD Navigator. SoftDVD Navigator provides the same look and feel to the user as Zoran's
leading all software SoftDVD application. This provides the opportunity for OEM's to have a
unified user interface spanning their entire product line of DVD solutions from full hardware to full
software decoding.
A full design kit including schematics, bill of materials, and design files is available immediately
from Zoran to qualified Independent Hardware Vendors and OEMs.
On the Vaddis DVD Decoder
The Vaddis ZR36700 decoder is the world's most advanced DVD solution targeted at
second-generation consumer stand-alone DVD/VideoCD/CD-DA players and PC-based DVD
systems. Based on Zoran's proprietary MPEG 2 video and Dolby Digital audio technology, the
Vaddis decoder integrates the decoding and presentation functionality required for full
implementation of the DVD standard in a single chip. This includes DVD content protection
(CSS), Program stream demultiplexing, MPEG 2 video, MPEG 1 video, Dolby Digital (AC-3)
audio, MPEG audio, audio/video synchronization, Linear PCM audio, Subpicture, OSD,
Letterbox, Pan-Scan and more.
The first member of the Vaddis family, the ZR36700, integrates many of the different
components required in first generation DVD systems and interfaces efficiently to the remaining
components in the system. Using a Zoran-proprietary implementation, the Vaddis decoder
requires only a single 16 Mbit SDRAM for full operation. Vaddis dramatically reduces the
number of chips and the size of the required memory thereby lowering the power consumption
and overall cost of a DVD system.
The Vaddis ZR36700 DVD decoder is in volume production and is available immediately.
About Zoran
Zoran Corporation develops and markets integrated circuits and software for digital video and
audio applications enabled by compression for the PC and consumer multimedia markets.
Zoran's product lines include JPEG codecs, MPEG and DVD decoders, Dolby Digital and
MPEG audio decoders, real-time Video CD and DVD software for the PC, and VLSI cores.
The company's software is bundled by PC and graphic system manufacturers for software-only
or hardware-assisted Video CD, DVD and JPEG compressed video playback on the PC.
Current applications for Zoran IC products include professional and consumer video editing
systems, filmless digital cameras, PC-based or stand-alone Video CD systems and DVD players,
and digital audio systems. Zoran is headquartered in Santa Clara, California with additional
operations in Haifa, Israel, Toronto, Canada, and Tokyo, Japan.
Zoran's products and technologies have been adopted by many of the world's largest PC,
audio/video boards and home entertainment systems manufacturers. For more information about
Zoran call (408) 919-4111, or contact our website: www.zoran.com.
Note to Editors:
Vaddis, SoftDVD and Vaddis4VMI are trademarks of Zoran Corporation. Intel740 is a
trademark of Intel Corporation.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS REGARDING Vaddis4VMI
1. What is Zoran's relationship with Intel for DVD solutions? Intel and Zoran have worked
together in a number of areas, including all software DVD solutions with SoftDVD and now a
hardware DVD solution with Vaddis.
2. How long have you been working together? We have been working together on various
projects for over two years.
3. What is the technology that you are announcing? The technology is called VMI: it is a direct
bidirectional interface between the graphics chip and the DVD decoder and enables a very low
cost hardware DVD solution.
4. Who developed the daughter card? Zoran designed the daughter card in close cooperation
with Intel so that it works with Intel's new Intel740 graphics chip.
5. Is Zoran selling the daughter card? Zoran is providing the daughter card as a reference
design. Actual volume manufacturing will be done by various PC board manufacturers.
6. How can customers get the daughter card? The daughter card is available to qualified
Independent Hardware Vendors and OEM's from Zoran and Intel.
7. How much does the daughter card cost? The cost for the Bill Of Materials is less than $30
in high volume.
8. Does Zoran have a vendor/customer who is currently manufacturing the daughter card? To
be announced.
9. When will the daughter card be shipping? The reference design is available immediately from
Intel and Zoran.
10. What is so wonderful about the daughter card design versus other daughter cards? Are
there others? Zoran's daughter card has a very low component count consisting of a single
16Mbit SDRAM, the Vaddis decoder, and a 27Mhz clock oscillator which leads to a sub-$30
BOM. There are other daughter cards but they have many additional chips.
11. Does this replace current graphic cards? Vaddis4VMI is designed to plug into the VMI
connector of an Intel740 graphics card or Intel740-based motherboard. It requires a graphics
chip in order to operate.
12. Which graphic cards does this daughter card add-on to? At this time, the daughter card
only works with the Intel740 Customer Reference Board.
13. What other graphics chips support the VMI standard? Several graphics vendors support
the VMI standard including Intel, Cirrus Logic, Trident, and Nvidia.
14. What is included in the reference design? The reference design includes a daughter card
and all of the software drivers necessary to make it work with the Intel740 Customer Reference
Board.
15. Why is it lower cost? How much lower (%)? The VMI daughter card implementation
provides hardware DVD decoding for roughly one half of the cost of a PCI card implementation
and does not require a PCI slot.
16. What is so great about the Vaddis chip on-board? Vaddis is the most highly integrated
DVD decoder in production and includes full CSS decryption on-chip as well as a Zoran
proprietary interface to a single 16 Mbit SDRAM.
17. How does this compare to the C-Cube announcement for a DVD daughter card? The
C-cube daughter card requires 4 units of EDO DRAM while Vaddis only requires one 16Mbit
SDRAM. To the best of our knowledge no competing solution requires such a small number of
devices or achieves as low cost a solution as the Vaddis4VMI DVD daughter card.
--30--jar/sf*
CONTACT: Media Contact
Virtual Public Relations
Carey Mitchell,
650/369-7833
E-Mail: carey@virtualpr.com
or
Zoran/Compcore Contact:
Tanya DelVecchio
408/919-4229
E-Mail: tanya@zoran.com
Chris Grell
408/919-4285
E-Mail: chrisg@zoran.com
or
Intel Contact:
Caroline De Bie
916/356-8956
E-Mail: caroline_de_bie@ccm.intel.com
or
Financial Contact:
Hannah Bruce, Financial Relations Board
415/986-1591
E-Mail: hbb@sf.frbd.com
WWW site: zoran.com |
