AUSTIN, Texas – August 7, 2000 – Cirrus Logic Inc. (NASDAQ:CRUS), the industry’s market leader of CD-Recordable (CD-R) and CD-ReWritable (CD-RW) chips, today announced its leading-edge optical storage technology has been adopted by Sony for use in the industry’s first CD-R based digital still camera, the Sony Mavica® MVC-CD1000.
Cirrus Logic’s CR3465 encoder/decoder, a highly integrated solution for CD-R/-RW applications, allows Sony to offer consumers permanent storage of photographs at a cost of about three cents each. Photographs are stored on an 8-centimeter CD-R (approximately 3 inches) that can hold 160 2.1 mega-pixel images. Each photograph takes a mere three seconds to record.
Consumers will save time and money by using an affordable, familiar storage medium with a format already used worldwide. Also, with CD-R based images consumers can quickly and easily send their favorite photos to friends and family via the Internet.
Previous versions of Sony’s Mavica camera used floppy discs for storage. As image resolutions increased however, fewer images could be stored on the once-popular 1.44Mb medium. The new Mavica MVC CD-1000 uses a 156Mb CD-R that fits inside the camera. After shooting, the CD-R can be removed and loaded into a PC’s CD-ROM, CD-R/RW, or DVD drive, eliminating the need for external cables, camera cradles, diskette adapters for flash cards, and associated software.
According to market research firm Cahner’s In-Stat Group, the digital still camera market is forecast to reach 29 million units by 2003, with an annual growth rate (CAGR) of almost 52% between 1998 and 2003. In-Stat also ranks Sony as the number one vendor of digital still cameras.
Proven Technology at Work
Cirrus Logic has shipped more than 5.5 million units of the CR3465 for Sony’s CD-RW drives and has proven its reliability in encoding at speeds twice that required by the Mavica. The CR3465 integrates a CD-ROM decoder and encoder, CIRC encoder, EFM modulation, ATIP decoder, buffer manager and ATAPI interface logic.
The chip also offers patented advanced buffer management and encoding technology for optimum performance of the camera’s disc drive.
Cirrus Logic, Inc.
Cirrus Logic is a premier supplier of high-performance analog and DSP chip solutions for Internet entertainment electronics. Building on its global market share leadership in audio integrated circuits and its rich mixed-signal patent portfolio, the company targets high-volume audio, storage and communications applications. Cirrus Logic sells its products under the Crystal®, Maverick™ and 3Ci™ brands as well as its own name. Founded in 1984 in Silicon Valley, Cirrus Logic operates from headquarters in Austin, Texas and major sites located in Fremont, California and Broomfield, Colorado as well as offices in Europe, Japan and Asia. More information about Cirrus Logic is available at www.cirrus.com.
###Safe Harbor Provision
Any forward looking statements and all other statements that may be made in this news release that are not historical facts are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. Please refer to Cirrus Logic’s current Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for more information on the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ.
Note to editors: Cirrus Logic, Crystal®, Maverick™ and 3Ci™ are registered trademarks of Cirrus Logic Inc. All other product names noted herein may be trademarks of their respective holders.