Toshiba and TVBLOB Join Forces to Provide a Short Time-to-Market Solution for a Wide Range of TX RISC-Based Multimedia Appliances

Toshiba and TVBLOB Join Forces to Provide a Short Time-to-Market Solution for a Wide Range of TX RISC-Based Multimedia Appliances

TVBLOB to Port Its ScatterMedia Software Toolkit to Toshiba TX RISC Processors and AVM49R Multimedia Reference Platform

SAN JOSE, Calif. and MILAN, Italy, Jan. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC)* and TVBLOB(TM) Srl, today announced a strategic relationship to provide a quick time-to-market solution for a wide range of multimedia appliances based on the new TVBLOB ScatterMedia(TM) Toolkit and Toshiba TX System RISC microprocessors. The Toshiba/TVBLOB collaboration will provide customers with complete reference designs, operating systems, drivers, middleware and application layers for systems, including media players, streaming servers, digital video recorders, soft-phones and video-conferencing appliances. Initially, TVBLOB will port its ScatterMedia software platform to the Toshiba TMPR4938-powered AVM49R Multimedia Reference Platform. The first customer demonstrations of the TVBLOB ScatterMedia-enabled AVM49R took place at CES 2005 in Las Vegas, Nev.

"Following our recent announcement of the AVM49R Multimedia Reference Platform, we are pleased to collaborate with TVBLOB," said Shardul Kazi, vice president of the RISC Microprocessor and Multimedia Business Unit at TAEC. "With the TVBLOB ScatterMedia software platform, set-top box manufacturers and developers who want to build applications with flexible streaming and client/server support can get to market faster and leapfrog the competition."

"We are excited to work with TAEC to provide OEMs with an unsurpassable solution," said TVBLOB CEO Fabrizio Caffarelli. "The combined Toshiba Multimedia Reference Platform and the TVBLOB ScatterMedia software platform offer OEMs an extremely short time to market for an unlimited number of multimedia-centric devices for SOHO, home, and professional use, thanks to the highly integrated TMPR49xx chipset family and ScatterMedia's modularity."

The ScatterMedia Toolkit provides the foundation to build network- distributed and interactive applications with strong support for real-time streaming and media management. The ScatterMedia software platform includes modules for quick and easy creation of media players, streaming servers, digital video recorders, soft-phones, and video-conferencing appliances, based on typical set-top box or professional rack-mount hardware-embedded platforms.

The ScatterMedia Toolkit offers a codec control infrastructure to easily integrate and mix hardware and software codecs. A full implementation of the Vweb codec chip on the AVM49R Toshiba platform provides a bi-directional, low latency, turnkey solution supporting MPEG-1/2/4 and H.263 for video and MPEG-1 layer I/II, MP3, AAC, AC-3, G.7xx for audio. The core components are embedded in a compact and ready-to-use daemon executable written in C/C++. The ScatterMedia core has been optimized for the MontaVista real-time Linux operating system; it supplies a backend gateway that offers a quick way to create client/server and peer-to-peer applications and is based on a truly distributed middleware. The backend server offers a plug-in infrastructure to create data-base driven server applications and to integrate third-party external services such as unified directories and existing billing systems.

The flexible and cost-effective Toshiba AVM49R Multimedia Reference Platform is a complete reference design that combines a powerful, highly- integrated 300 megahertz Toshiba TMPR4938 MIPS-based(TM) RISC processor, a Toshiba TC86C001F PCI-to-ATA66/USB companion chip and the Vweb VW2010 MPEG-1/2/4 audio/video CODEC chip, all running under the MontaVista Linux operating system. Offered in a compact 6.7-inch by 6.7-inch mini-ITX form factor, it supports real-time MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 encoding and decoding.

Pricing and Availability

The Toshiba AVM49R Multimedia Reference Platform Hardware Developer Kit is currently available from TAEC for customers to license at $10,000.00 per license. The TVBLOB ScatterMedia toolkit software platform is available for license from TVBLOB; please contact info@tvblob.com for more information.

About the Toshiba TX System RISC Family of Microprocessors and Platforms

Focusing on the digital consumer, office automation and automotive market segments, Toshiba offers a full family of MIPS-based Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) microprocessors and peripheral circuits. The Toshiba TX System RISC family consists of 32- and 64-bit processors available as standard products or as a custom SoC tailored for an embedded design. The family is comprised of a range of processors from low-power consuming to high- performance and includes special functions essential for the design of embedded products, such as reduced code size and real-time capability. Toshiba offers access to expert technology professionals for design questions and application support.

The AVM49R is a member of a family of Toshiba TX System RISC Multimedia Reference Platforms consisting of hardware, software and system integration tools and documentation based on products from Toshiba. This modular, configurable approach provides a ready-to-use bill of materials and will evolve with the customer's design and industry standards. Customers get a jump on software development and on the competition. Platforms are available for multimedia, industrial-control, mobile and wireless, and other digital consumer applications.

About TVBLOB

TVBLOB was founded in 2003 by Fabrizio Caffarelli, former founder of IncatSystems, Inc. the company that bootstrapped the CD-recording industry with the famous Easy-CD Pro mastering software (later acquired by Adaptec). TVBLOB products constitute the first commercially-available software platform that can cover a range of needs from entry-level IPTV-STBs to a distributed peer-to-peer Audio and Video streaming solution.

TVBLOB has offices in Italy and the Netherlands and technical support in Freemont, CA. For further information please write to info@tvblob.com or visit its site www.tvblob.com.

*About TAEC

Combining quality and flexibility with design engineering expertise, TAEC brings a breadth of advanced, next-generation technologies to its customers. This broad offering includes semiconductors, flash memory-based storage solutions, and displays for the computing, wireless, networking, automotive and digital consumer markets.

TAEC is an independent operating company owned by Toshiba America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation, one of the five largest semiconductor companies worldwide in terms of global sales for the year 2003 according to Gartner/Dataquest's Worldwide Semiconductor Market Share Ranking. Toshiba is a world leader in high-technology products with more than 300 major subsidiaries and affiliates worldwide. For additional company and product information, please visit TAEC's website at chips.toshiba.com. For technical inquiries, please e-mail Tech.Questions@taec.toshiba.com.

Information in this press release, including product pricing and specifications, content of services and contact information, is current and believed to be accurate on the date of the announcement, but is subject to change without prior notice. Technical and application information contained here is subject to the most recent applicable Toshiba product specifications. In developing designs, please ensure that Toshiba products are used within specified operating ranges as set forth in the most recent Toshiba product specifications and the information set forth in Toshiba's "Handling Guide for Semiconductor Devices," or "Toshiba Semiconductor Reliability Handbook." This information is available at www.chips.toshiba.com, or from your TAEC representative.

All trademarks and tradenames used herein are the properties of their respective holders.


Source: Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc.

CONTACT: Judy Kahn, +1-650-948-8881, judith.kahn@comcast.net, for
Toshiba; or Deborah Chalmers of Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc.,
+1-408-526-2454, deborah.chalmers@taec.toshiba.com; or Deirdre Straughan of
TVBLOB, deirdre@tvblob.com

Web site: http://www.chips.toshiba.com/
http://www.tvblob.com/

NOTE TO EDITORS: TAEC reader inquiries please publish: Tech.Questions@taec.toshiba.com. TVBLOB reader inquiries: please publish: info@tvblob.com

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