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Encoding Capability Expands Feature Set Supported By TI's Programmable DSP; Offers Critical Recording Functionality To Portable Audio Manufacturers and Consumers

As part of the collaboration between TI and Fraunhofer, TI will license Fraunhofer's industry-leading MP3 and AAC encoders and offer them to portable device manufacturers. The encoding software will be optimized to operate on TI's low-power, TMS320C5000 DSPs, which is software-upgradable to enable support for future product features and multiple audio formats including those that are Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) compliant. TI's DSPs are currently designed-in to 19 next-generation portable audio players due to be released this year.

``As the first company to support both AAC and MP3 encoding on our DSP, TI is reaffirming its commitment to the digital audio industry by offering the broadest portfolio of audio formats and features,'' said John Van Scoter, TI's Internet Audio Vice President and General Manager. ``TI is the leading supplier of Internet audio solutions for next-generation portable players and the only supplier shipping volume production of a low-power, multi-format upgradeable solution today. By focusing on the features and functionality that our customers demand today, we are helping them to remain competitive well into the future.''

``We are extremely pleased to work together with Texas Instruments to bring high-quality encoding capabilities to the C5000 platform,'' said Martin Dietz, head of the Audio department at Fraunhofer IIS. ``This offers exciting new opportunities for future products and will add even more drive to the portable audio business.''

The TI/Fraunhofer solution, scheduled to be available for evaluation in the second quarter of 2000, will adhere to SDMI guidelines, which seek to protect the rights of content owners by building security measures such as watermarking, encryption and decryption into compact discs, electronic music distribution (EMD), personal computer hosts and portable players. TI and Fraunhofer are each founding members of SDMI and helped to define inter-industry guidelines for secure download measures. Fraunhofer and TI are committed to accelerating the delivery of SDMI-capable devices and applications to market.

About Texas Instruments:

The worldwide leader and pioneer in digital signal processing solutions since 1982, Texas Instruments provides innovative DSP and mixed-signal/analog technologies to more than 30,000 customers in the computer, wireless communications, networking, Internet, consumer, digital motor control and mass storage markets worldwide. To help customers get to market faster, TI offers easy-to-use development tools and extensive software and hardware support, further complemented by close to 300 third-party DSP solutions providers. Texas Instruments is a global semiconductor company and the world's leading designer and supplier of digital signal processing and analog technologies, the engines driving the digitalization of electronics. Headquartered in Dallas, the company's business also includes materials and controls, educational and productivity solutions, and digital imaging. The company has manufacturing or sales operations in more than 25 countries.

Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information is located on the World Wide Web at http://www.ti.com/sc/internetaudio/.

About Fraunhofer IIS:

Fraunhofer IIS is the leading research laboratory in the area of audio coding. For more than ten years, Fraunhofer IIS has actively driven forward the development of audio compression algorithms. Major parts of MPEG Layer 3 (MP3), the most popular format on the Internet, as well as MPEG-2 AAC, the most efficient audio compression algorithm currently available, have been developed at Fraunhofer IIS.

Besides devising new algorithms, Fraunhofer IIS engineers focus on the effective implementation of state-of-the-art audio and video coding schemes on PCs and digital signal processors (DSPs).

Moreover, Fraunhofer IIS has developed one of the first mechanisms to technically protect intellectual property rights (the Multimedia Protection Protocol, MMP) and is working on audio watermarking technologies. Fraunhofer IIS is active in international efforts focusing on methods for intellectual property management and protection, including MPEG-4 IPMP, the AES activities on Internet Audio Delivery and the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). More information is located on the World Wide Web at http://www.iis.fhg.de/.

SOURCE: Texas Instruments Incorporated