New Alliances
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BW0100 APR 13,1998 8:03 PACIFIC 11:03 EASTERN
( BW)(FLASHPOINT) Industry Leaders Unveil Comprehensive Digital Imaging Platform; FlashPoint, Motorola, Wind River and SanDisk Align to Develop Extensive Solution for Next Generation Products
Business Editors/High Tech Writers
TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 13, 1998--FlashPoint Technology, Motorola, Wind River Systems and SanDisk have joined forces to develop a comprehensive platform for digital imaging that will serve as the foundation for next-generation digital cameras and imaging peripherals.
The collaboration of these leading technologies will create a unified approach to providing digital imaging solutions that removes barriers to consumer acceptance and encourages market expansion. Three market-making manufacturers of digital cameras -- Eastman Kodak, Minolta and Sharp -- have already adopted this approach for future products. The technology will be showcased today in Tokyo, Japan.
Consumers have identified several significant deterrents in embracing digital imaging, including operational complexity, built-in obsolescence and low image quality. This significant group of companies is collectively supporting a complete portfolio of transcending technologies to address and resolve each market hurdle. Each company contributes a specifically tailored and critical piece towards creating the platform for an entire imaging solution. Motorola's microprocessors and image sensors offer ideal performance and image quality; Wind River's Tornado(TM) provides a complete application development environment for constantly updating camera features; SanDisk CompactFlash(TM) memory cards furnish optimal storage solutions; and Kodak, Minolta and Sharp represent the conduit for bridging these integral products into the consumer marketplace.
FlashPoint's contribution to this revolutionary combination is Digita(TM), the industry's first operating environment designed specifically for digital cameras and imaging peripherals. Digita enhances the experience of digital imaging and simplifies camera operation through its icon-and-menu driven interface. In addition, Digita enables cameras to act independently of a PC, providing a powerful feature-set and robust functionality on the camera itself. For instance, users will have the ability to easily capture and modify images, add voice and text annotations, and store, catalog, and print images directly from the camera. And Digita's holistic software architecture links together imaging products of various types, allowing manufacturers to develop products around a cohesive standard.
"We have aligned our efforts with these cutting-edge companies to lift digital imaging off its current plateau," said Stephen D. Saylor, executive vice president of FlashPoint Technology. "We are working together to standardize the entire imaging process -- creating a uniform approach for image input, organization, publishing and archiving. Through Digita, and other complementary technologies, manufacturers will offer easy-to-use products that feature powerful on-board processing capabilities without being tethered to a PC."
"With the advent of mega-pixel cameras, hardware development has reached a new plateau. The next wave of digital camera innovation will come from software," said Kazuyoshi Hatamiya, president of Brain-Child, Inc. "Users want simplicity and in-camera applications. And FlashPoint's Digita is the foundation on which manufacturers can build the ease of use and software functions that both consumers and professionals demand."
The Catalyst for Growing the Imaging Market Opportunity
The collaboration of FlashPoint, Motorola, SanDisk and Wind River is based on a core understanding of photographers' unique needs, providing a specialized solution that directly overcomes the barriers to mainstream market acceptance. By adopting this platform, manufacturers can produce products that are easier to use, more powerful, and capable of capturing larger numbers of higher resolution images. In addition, these products can be constantly updated and custom tailored for specific markets, which virtually eliminates product obsolescence.
Kodak, Minolta and Sharp Have Announced License Agreements
Kodak, Minolta and Sharp are the first manufacturers to license Digita. By incorporating Digita into their future products, these precedent-setting companies will offer consumers a broader range of lower cost, feature-rich and easier-to-use cameras, printers and third-party peripherals.
Motorola
The MPC8xx and ImageMOS product series are examples of Motorola's commitment to providing total system solutions for the emerging digital imaging market. The PowerPC architecture is an open computing standard with a wide variety of development systems available, spanning a full spectrum of applications. The MPC8xx family leverages the performance of the PowerPC architecture and software into handheld systems. Compared to consumer CCD or contact image sensor-based designs, the entire family of Motorola CMOS sensors eliminates special purpose timing chips and power supplies by using a single 3.3 V supply and CMOS compatible I/Os. A patented "pinned" photodiode design developed by Motorola and Kodak largely overcomes the poor noise performance and color response limitations associated with conventional CMOS sensors.
SanDisk
SanDisk's support for CompactFlash is built into FlashPoint's Digita operating environment, the only removable storage card with that distinction. SanDisk invented CompactFlash, and during the last two years it has become the global standard for digital film. More than 20 camera manufacturers have designed it into 36 new digital cameras that have been introduced into the market. SanDisk foresees a bright future for Digita and believes that it has the potential to become an industry standard in digital cameras just as CompactFlash has become a standard.
Wind River Systems
Wind River's Tornado for Digita enables manufacturers to add and subtract features as needed to create product differentiation while maintaining the new digital imaging standard. In addition, imaging device developers and independent software vendors alike can use Tornado for Digita to build after-market add-on features, allowing consumers to continually update their leading-edge products and eliminate the fear of product obsolescence. Tornado for Digita includes the industry's most advanced development tools for building imaging devices and VxWorks(R), the baseline real-time operating system for the Digita environment.
--30--cs/sf*
CONTACT: The Benjamin Group, Inc.
Brian Solis, 408/559-6090
bsolis@sv.tbgi.com
or
Inoue Public Relations
Aki Takeuchi, 81-3-5269-2301
aki@inoue-pr.com
KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS COMED PRODUCT
KEY: BENFXB |
