Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 10:55:23 -0400 From: DIGITAL PRESS RELEASE Subject: PRESS/DIGITAL's New Microprocessor to Supercharge Handheld PCs ----------------------------------------- |||||| Digital Press and Analysts News |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Digital Equipment Corporation Maynard, Massachusetts 01754-2571 Lisa Lipson (508) 568-4352 DIGITAL's New StrongARM Microprocessor to Supercharge Handheld PCs, Smart Phones for Consumer Market ...New Chip Enables 'Smaller, Faster, Smarter' Products... ...Manufacturers Express Enthusiasm for StrongARM Architecture... MAYNARD, Mass., September 2, 1997 _ Digital Equipment Corporation today ushered in a new era of mobile computing and communications performance for the consumer electronics market by unveiling the SA-1100 microprocessor, the newest member of the high-performance, low-power StrongARM family. Designed to boost the capabilities and appeal of handheld PCs, subnotebooks, wallet PCs, "smart" cellular phones, and Internet-enabled "Web" phones, the StrongARM SA-1100 chip delivers three to five times the performance of competing products either currently available or on the drawing board. The chip also features integrated user interfaces, very low power consumption and competitive prices. High Volume Markets International Data Corporation analysts estimate that the total handheld market will grow from 3.1 million units in 1996 to nearly 28 million units by 2001. Handheld computing devices will represent the largest market with 16 million units in 2001. The segment for smart phones, which combine electronic mail and Internet access capabilities with cellular voice communication, is projected to see the fastest growth _ from 35,000 units in 1996 to 8.8 million in 2001. According to Ed Caldwell, vice president, Digital Semiconductor, a Digital Equipment Corporation business, "Digital Semiconductor's StrongARM products are well positioned to benefit from the tremendous volume potential of the growing portable computing and communications markets. The companies announcing support of the SA-1100 today are leaders in their respective industries, and their actions constitute firm endorsements of the StrongARM architecture." Industry Support "Digital's StrongARM SA-1100 is a great example of the processors that will allow future handheld and embedded systems to provide fast performance, color displays, and high-speed communications for users," said J. Gerry Purdy, president and CEO of Mobile Insights, Inc. "Products like this will greatly expand the market for handheld and embedded systems." Northern Telecom (Nortel) is developing a cellular, touch-screen, pen-friendly "network telephone" that will deliver a steady stream of high-value services and applications using Java. Phil Terrett, senior manager, product line management, Advanced Wireless Terminals division of Nortel Ltd., said, "To deliver that in an affordable, pocket-size package with respectable performance and battery life presented a challenge to us. The StrongARM SA-1100 chip is one of the significant enabling technologies which helped make this a reality." "Microsoft welcomes the SA-1100 microprocessor because it really opens up the envelope for Windows CE performance," said Jim Floyd, Handheld PC product manager at Microsoft Corporation. "The SA-1100 and the Windows CE operating system have matching strengths and features that can bring desktop performance to handheld PCs. The cooperation between Digital and Microsoft now extends from servers and clusters down to handheld PCs." Sandy Benett, chief operating officer at Newton, Inc., said, "The StrongARM architecture is an important feature of the MessagePad 2000 handheld computer. It facilitates faster response times, longer periods between battery changes, and voice recording capability. We will continue to work closely with Digital in the future _ the StrongARM chip plays an important role in our ongoing product strategy." According to Stephen Randall, joint president, Psion Software PLC, "Ultimately, AA battery-powered PDAs will require the kind of performance and functionality expected from connected phones, video conferencing systems and desktop devices, including full support for Enterprise Java. We are seeing increasing demand from licensees for industrial-strength, high-end mobile devices. EPOC32 was architected precisely for these applications, and we are developing products based on the SA-1100 that for the first time turn these high-end concepts into reality." "The StrongARM SA-1100 processor is the latest product of a fruitful relationship between Digital and ARM," said Robin Saxby, president and CEO of Advanced RISC Machines. "Digital has made great strides in making the ARM architecture the top performer in portable and embedded applications. With the recent opening of our Austin, Texas, design center, we are able to support locally further innovations by Digital and other partners." Better Features for Users, OEMs Tom Schild, StrongARM portable products marketing manager for Digital Semiconductor, said that the StrongARM SA-1100 "delivers on the industry's promise of enhanced mobile communications and practical, compatible handheld computing. As the computing, communications and consumer electronics markets converge, the SA-1100 will continue to win significant designs." Features that users can expect to see in StrongARM-based handheld systems include more accurate user interfaces such as handwriting and speech recognition, color displays, faster synchronization with desktop systems, softmodem, and integrated communications. For OEMs, the SA-1100 chip offers the ability to run Java applications off the Web. A highly integrated, single-chip solution with inexpensive packaging, the SA-1100 enables reduction of system costs and added form factor flexibility. An SA-1100 Evaluation Platform is also available to assist designers in product development and to shorten time to market for new products. Industry Leadership The SA-1100 200MHz chip is the first embedded processor to approach 1000 MIPS per watt, a ratio approximately three times that of its nearest major competitor. At speeds of 200MHz and 133MHz, the SA-1100 microprocessor delivers up to 230 Dhrystone V2.1 MIPS, while typically consuming less than 250 milliwatts (mW) of power. The StrongARM SA-1100 chip's high performance and large caches make it the fastest Java application processor in the embedded market and also the first embedded processor to emulate a v.34+ modem in software, utilizing less than 25 percent of the CPU. An integrated high-speed multiplier with digital signal processor (DSP) functions enables improved speech and handwriting recognition. In addition, the SA-1100 chip's low operational power consumption, combined with power-conserving idle and sleep modes, enables AA battery-operated devices to provide three to six weeks of normal use between battery changes _ the longest battery life for any high-speed processor. The chip's integrated features include a memory controller that supports SRAM, DRAM, Flash, and ROM as well as single or dual PCMCIA cards; a flexible display controller that supports monochrome and color displays in resolutions up to 1024x1024; 28 general purpose I/O and six serial interfaces including USB, Codec, FIR, and SDLC; and all required timer and system functions. Software Support The StrongARM SA-1100 microprocessor is ARM v.4-compliant and is supported by the widest range of operating systems and development tool chains in the industry. They include: Company Operating system Tool chain Microsoft WindowsCE Visual C/C++ Newton, Inc. NewtonOS Newton Developer Tools Psion Software EPOC32 Gnu Lucent Technologies Inferno Inferno tool chain JavaSoft, Inc. JavaOS Java Workshop Microware OS-9 FasTrac Geoworks Sokoto ARM tool chain, C/C++ tools JMI Software Systems C-EXECUTIVE C-EXECUTIVE tools Wind River Systems VxWorks Tornado Pricing, Availability The StrongARM SA-1100 microprocessor is priced at $29 for the 133MHz version and $39 for the 200MHz version in quantities of 10,000. Samples are available now; volume shipments will begin in the first quarter of 1998. The SA-1100 Evaluation Platform is priced at $2,500 and is available now. Digital Semiconductor, a Digital Equipment Corporation business headquartered in Hudson, Massachusetts, designs, manufactures and markets industry-leading semiconductor products including Alpha microprocessors and PCI chips for networking, bridging, and multimedia, plus low-power StrongARM microprocessors under license from Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and Samsung Electronics Company Ltd. are alternate sources for Alpha microprocessors. Web site: http://www.digital.com/semiconductor Digital Equipment Corporation is a world leader in open client/server solutions from personal computing to integrated worldwide information systems. Digital's scalable Alpha and x86 platforms, storage, networking, software and services, together with industry-focused solutions from business partners, help organizations compete and win in today's global marketplace. #### Note to Editors: Digital, Digital Semiconductor, and the Digital logo are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. ARM is a registered trademark and StrongARM is a trademark of Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. WindowsCE and Visual C/C++ are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. NewtonOS is a trademark of Newton, Inc. EPOC32 is a trademark of Psion Software PLC. Gnu is a trademark of Cygnus Solutions, Inc. Inferno is a trademark of Lucent Technologies, Inc. JavaOS is a trademark of JavaSoft, Inc. OS-9 and FasTrac are trademarks of Microware, Inc. Sokoto is a trademark of Geoworks, Inc. C-EXECUTIVE is a trademark of JMI Software Systems, Inc. VxWorks and Tornado are registered trademarks of Wind River Systems, Inc. CORP/98/750 ============================================================================ Digital Press and Analysts News is sent as a courtesy to members of the press, analyst and consulting community. For subscription information please contact pr-news@pa.dec.com. All Digital press releases, fact sheets and backgrounders are archived on ftp.digital.com in the /pub/Digital/info/pr-news directory. They are also available at http://www.digital.com/info/pr-news/ on the World Wide Web . ============================================================================