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Tensilica Licenses Dolby Digital for Xtensa III IP
SANTA CLARA, Calif.----Oct. 9, 2000--Tensilica®
Inc., the leading supplier of configurable microprocessor core
intellectual property (IP), announced the company has become a
licensee of Dolby Laboratories, Inc. for that firm's Dolby Digital(TM)
(AC-3(TM)) digital audio coding technology.
Dolby Digital, which debuted in movie theatres in 1992, provides
up to five full-range sound channels plus a sixth channel for
low-frequency effects. It is currently the most popular digital film
sound format, as well as a worldwide standard for both standard and
high-definition digital TV (SDTV and HDTV); digital cable systems;
Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), and Laserdisc. Dolby Digital is also
becoming an audio standard in Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS)
systems.
To date over 57 million products have been sold incorporating
Dolby Digital, with significant growth expected as DVD/HDTV video and
DVD audio become the de facto standards for multimedia content.
Tensilica's Xtensa(TM) IP provides embedded systems designers with
a configurable processor technology for system-on-chip (SOC)
applications. By licensing Dolby Digital audio coding, Xtensa users
will be able to implement Dolby Digital decoding in their designs. In
the past, typical hardware implementations for the decoding of Dolby
Digital required a dedicated microprocessor to manage a digital signal
processor core for the audio processing and decoding. Now, with Xtensa
III, designers will be able to accommodate these requirements with a
single core microprocessor with specific instruction extensions to
accelerate decoding.
``Tensilica's Xtensa technology has become a well-received
processor solution for embedded system developers. We are pleased that
Tensilica has chosen to offer Dolby Digital to customers for their
consumer, communications and computer applications,'' said Roger
Dressler, Director of Technology Strategy at Dolby Laboratories
Licensing Corporation.
``Dolby technology is the gold standard for audio coding and an
ideal fit to application-specific processors'', said Chris Rowen,
President and CEO of Tensilica. ``Dolby and Tensilica are creating
highly efficient audio solutions and filling the pervasive need for
rapid development of high-volume system-on-chip implementations of
Dolby Digital.''
Availability
The Dolby Digital package for the Xtensa processor will be
available in the first quarter of 2001.
About Dolby Laboratories
Dolby Laboratories is the developer of signal processing systems
used worldwide in applications that include motion picture sound,
consumer entertainment products and media, broadcasting, and music
recording. Based in San Francisco with European headquarters in
England, the privately held company also has offices in New York, Los
Angeles, Shanghai, Beijing, and Tokyo.
About Tensilica
Tensilica was founded in July 1997 to address the fast-growing
market for configurable microprocessor cores and software development
tools for high volume, embedded systems. Using the company's
proprietary Xtensa Processor Generator, system-on-a-chip (SOC)
designers can develop a processor subsystem hardware design and a
complete software development tool environment tailored to their
specific requirements in hours.
Tensilica's solutions provide a proven, easy-to-use, methodology
that enables designers to achieve optimum application performance in
minimum design time. The Company has over 100 engineers engaged in
research, development, and customer support from its offices in Santa
Clara, California, Waltham, Massachusetts, Princeton, N.J., Houston,
Texas, Oxford, U.K. and Yokohama, Japan. Tensilica is headquartered in
Santa Clara, California (95054) at 3255-6 Scott Boulevard, and can be
reached at (408) 986-8000 or via www.tensilica.com on the World Wide
Web.
``Tensilica'' is a registered trademark and ``Xtensa'' is a trademark
belonging to Tensilica, Inc. ``Dolby'' and ``AC-3'' are trademarks
belonging to Dolby Laboratories, Inc.
Contact:
Tensilica Inc.
Bernie Rosenthal, 408/327-7302
bernier@tensilica.com
or
Dolby Laboratories, Inc.
Jim Arnold, 415/645-5116
JJA@dolby.com
or
The Leapfrog Group
Kim Alfaro, 415/563-4769
kimpr@holonet.net
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