Zoran up today on more digitial video news...
Zoran Introduces the "COACH" - the Most Integrated IC for Digital Still Cameras; The COACH - Camera On A CHip - Offers Unmatched Quality, Speed, Flexibility and Time to Market
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 26, 1998--Zoran Corporation, (NASDAQ:ZRAN) a leading provider of integrated circuits and software for compression enabled video and audio applications, announced today the availability of the COACH(TM) - Camera On A CHip - IC.
Zoran, which supplied the enabling technology for the world's first Digital Still Cameras (DSC) is now launching the COACH into the high growth segment of this market. Leveraging Zoran's image compression and processing technology, the COACH represents the industry's most complete and feature- rich Digital Still Camera (DSC) solution. Integration and flexibility, coupled with a comprehensive set of features, make the COACH a perfect match for the highest quality, yet affordable, digital cameras. Supplemented by the CAM-ON(TM) reference design and the CoachExpress(TM) development package, the COACH offers manufacturers exceptionally short time to market. Priced at below $25 in volume quantities, the COACH is now available in sample quantities.
"The explosive growth of graphics intensive internet sites together with faster, more capable, multimedia PCs created a huge demand for digital images." said Mark Kirstein, digital media analyst for Cahners In-Stat Group. "We expect this demand to drive the growth of the digital cameras market from 2 million units in 1997 to almost 20 million units by 2002."
"The progress in digital image processing technology enabled a market shift towards cameras with higher resolution and shorter capture time" said Dr. Shmuel Farkash, Vice President of Video Products at Zoran. "Based on Zoran's vast experience in image compression, the COACH offers unprecedented mega-pixel image processing rates while maintaining the highest possible image quality. This allows for capturing of mega-pixel images in a fraction of a second, as well as handling of real-time video. The COACH flexibility and high level programmability offer different camera designers the opportunity to differentiate themselves from each other while leveraging their own proprietary technology."
THE COACH ADVANTAGE
Unparalleled Image processing
The COACH handles mega-pixel images in a fraction of a second. This eliminates a major drawback of current generation solutions which suffer from long delay when taking consecutive images or playing them back. A patented Bit Rate Control (BRC) algorithm, guarantees a fixed size for all compressed image files, thereby allowing a pre-determined number of images per memory card.
High Integration & Low Power
The COACH offers unprecedented integration without compromising flexibility. Such integration enables lower part count and lower power consumption. To further reduce the power consumption, an advanced power management software module, "SmartPower(TM)", is used to disable non activate COACH modules.
Full USB Support
The Universal Serial Bus is now an accepted standard with an installed base of over 120 million PCs and it is now shipping with practically all new PCs. USB is three hundred times faster than a serial port and is hence, ideally suited for video capturing. The COACH offers a complete USB solution, all the way from the hardware module to the USB PC drivers (Win98/WinNT). Combining the USB bandwidth with the COACH's real-time video capture capability creates a true convergence product performing as a top quality DSC as well as a desk top camera for video conferencing or video mail, when connected to a PC.
Time To Market
The Coach comes with a fully functional reference design and the unique CoachExpress development package. The CoachExpress automatically translates the desired camera functions, interface and other configurations to a COACH parameter set. This enables the DSC developer to determine the camera parameters without in-depth knowledge of the COACH internal architecture, saving months in development cycle.
CAM-ON Reference Design
The CAM-ON is a fully functional DSC designed jointly by Zoran and ImageLink Inc. - who has successfully designed many digital cameras for leading OEMs. The CAM-ON is a complete DSC reference design which offers a comprehensive DSC feature set including multiple image-quality levels, image sequence recording, audio titling, video capturing and more.
ABOUT ImageLink
ImageLink, Inc. (www.ImageLink-Inc.co.jp) is a privately held company headquartered in Nagano, Japan. The company is specializing in the design and development of digital still cameras.
ABOUT ZORAN
Zoran Corporation develops and markets software and integrated circuits (IC) for compression enabled digital Audio and Video applications. Zoran also designs complete reference products based on Zoran's technology. Zoran's product lines and Intellectual property (IP) include JPEG codecs, MPEG, DVD decoders, IC cores, digital audio processors for decoding and processing digital audio streams such as Dolby Digital and MPEG, and real-time DVD software for PC. All these standard based products benefit from Zoran's StandardPlus(TM) technology. Zoran's software is bundled by PC and graphics-card manufacturers for software and software assisted DVD playback on PCs. The company's ICs are used in numerous digital Audio and Video products. Leading applications incorporating Zoran's products and IP are professional and consumer video editing systems, filmless digital cameras, stand alone DVD players and PC-based systems, digital speakers and audio systems.
Zoran is headquartered in Santa Clara, California with additional operations in Haifa, Israel, Toronto, Canada and offices in Tokyo, Japan and Shenzhen, China. For more information about Zoran call (408) 919-4111, or visit our website: www.zoran.com. For our latest press releases please call our fax-on-demand service at 1-800-PRO-INFO, ticker symbol ZRAN.
COACH, CoachExpress, StandardPlus, SmartPower and CAM-ON are trademarks of Zoran Corporation.
CONTACT: Zoran Corporation
Yizhar Ganor, 408/919-4286
ir@zoran.com
or
The Financial Relations Board
Cathy Roberts (investors)
Alicia Nieva-Woodgate (media)
415/986-1591
URL: www.zoran.com
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