TOKYO--Sept. 28, 2004--Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TSE: 6703) today announced that it has succeeded in developing two ARM946E-S(TM)-core system LSIs, the ML696500 series, using a single chip to realize the major component functions
of hard disk drive (HDD) audio players. Oki begins sample shipment from November
2004, targeting the rapidly expanding HDD mounted mobile audio player market.
Volume shipment starts from January 2005, aiming to achieve production of 500,000
units per month designated for the worldwide market in the fiscal year ending
March 2006.
"Though HDD mounted portable audio players have been attracting attention
recently, slow transfer speeds from PC to player and short battery life have
been some issues," said Akira Kamo, President of Silicon Solutions Company
at Oki Electric. "Oki's system LSIs enable greatly increased speed and
performance, small size, and low power consumption, in order to meet the user
needs. With the total solution Oki provides with its chip and software, HDD
audio player manufactures can develop a compact and high performance player
in a short timeframe."
The ML696500 series introduced is an LSI intended for HDD audio players. It
enables MP3 and WMA audio files to be played, as well as high-speed data transfer
between PC and the player's hard drive. It comes in two models; either with
an onboard 512 KB Flash ROM; the ML69Q6500, or without; the ML696500. Since
both models have onboard USB 2.0 high-speed device controllers and Ultra DMA
66-compatible ATA/IDE controllers, a dramatic increase in data transfer speed
between PC and player has been realized; with a current effective data transfer
rate of 128 Mbps, compared to that of 8 Mbps for USB 1.1 full-speed controllers.
Furthermore, the ML696500 series has simplified the design of complex analog
circuitry by combining primary audio-player component functions onto a single
chip. Previously, components such as the DA converter, mounted with a headphone
amplifier, AD converter mounted with a microphone amplifier required several
chips.
Concurrently with the introduction of the ML696500 series, Oki will begin selling
SDKs (software development kits) for this LSI, for use in developing software
for reproduction of music files, managing hard drive files, and other purposes.
Oki will continue to develop small size, high performance and low power consumption
system LSIs together with software and aims sales of 10 billion yen in the HDD
audio player market by the fiscal year ending March 2007.
About Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
Founded more than a century ago in 1881, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is
Japan's first telecommunications manufacturer, with its headquarter in Tokyo,
Japan. With the corporate vision, "Oki, Network Solutions for a Global
Society," Oki Electric provides top-quality products, technologies and
solutions to its customers through its telecommunications systems, information
systems and electronic devices segments. All three segments are integrated into
one effective organization that functions as a collective force to create exciting
new products and technologies, including information and telecom converged solutions.
Through its business activities, Oki Electric satisfies a spectrum of customer
needs in various markets. Visit Oki's global web site at http://www.oki.com/.
Notes:
-- ARM is a registered trademark of ARM Limited. ARM946E is a trademark of
ARM Limited. Any other trademarks or trade names are the property of their respective
owners. "ARM" is used to represent ARM Holdings plc (LSE: ARM and
Nasdaq: ARMHY); its operating company ARM Limited; and the regional subsidiaries
ARM INC.; ARM KK; ARM Korea Ltd.; ARM Taiwan; ARM France SAS; ARM Consulting
(Shanghai) Co. Ltd.; and ARM Belgium N.V.
-- Names of companies and products are trademarks or registered trademarks
of the respective companies.
