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- WALTHAM, MA., Ma 26, 1992--(OTC:SOFT) SofTech, Inc. announced today that it
- has reached an agreement to develop software support tools for a digital
- signal processing (DSP) chip family produced by a joint venture between
- Array Microsystems and Samsung Electronics Company, Ltd. The software,
- developed by SofTech's Colorado Springs operation, positions the company
- in the high-growth DSP market. No terms of the agreement were disclosed.
-
- The a77 DSP chip family, to be co-produced by Array and Samsung, will
- feature unique architectural structures designed to address video
- compression requirements of the rapidly expanding image processing
- markets. The new chips will go into production in early 1993. The product
- family to be developed under the agreement targets office automation,
- computer graphics, video conferencing and other multi-media applications.
- Members of the a77 chip family will also be used in consumer applications
- such as camcorders, digital VCR's and video telephones. These markets are
- expected to grow dramatically in the 1990's as the demand for
- exceptionally high video processing rates escalates.
-
- SofTech's role in the a77 development effort is to specify, design and
- develop the software support tools that will allow users to interactively
- program and simulate the chip(s). The chips' programs can be tailored to
- specific image compression applications by systems designers, the users
- that incorporate the powerful chip into integrated circuit boards. SofTech
- is currently developing two software support tools--the Flowgraph
- Editor/Assembler (FEA) and the Emulation and Timing Simulator (ETS). The
- FEA will provide the user interface to high-level graphical symbols
- representing instructions that will execute on the chip. The ETS will then
- take the instruction set configuration and run it through a simulator to
- provide the user with fidelity and performance results.
-
- SofTech currently anticipates a beta-test version of the software to be
- available in August of this year. SofTech and the Array/Samsung team will
- then begin to market the a77 chip family and the associated software
- support tools.
-
- Array Microsystems, Inc., headquartered in Colorado Springs, develops,
- manufactures and markets leading-edge VLSI (digital signal processing)
- solutions, including a66-based chipsets and VME/PC-AT board-level products
- for system evaluation, prototyping or integrator OEM requirements. Array
- Microsystems, Inc. holds and has applications pending on U.S. and
- international patents covering its proprietary digital processing
- architectures, technology and products.
-
- Samsung Electronics Company, Ltd., a $7.8 billion company headquartered in
- Seoul, Korea is participating in the development, manufacturing and sales
- of semiconductor, computer, information systems and consumer electronics.
- The semiconductor business unit of Samsung Electronics Company, Ltd.,
- manufactures a variety of memory and logic products using advanced
- semiconductor processes. The company recorded semiconductor revenue of
- $1.3 billion in 1990 and was ranked the 15th largest semiconductor company
- in the world. Samsung Semiconductor, Inc., is one of its subsidiaries in
- the United States and develops, markets and sells the product line
- manufactured by Samsung Electronics Company, Ltd. Samsung is making a
- thrust into the processor marketplace, including the DSP segment.
-
- SofTech, Inc. was founded in 1969. It is a publicly-held company which
- provides custom software design and development, systems engineering, and
- systems integration services to the Department of Defense (DoD), other
- government agencies and commercial companies. The company employs
- approximately 500 people in 16 locations throughout the United States.
-
- SofTech Inc, 460 Totten Pond Rd, Waltham, MA 02154-1960
- 617-890-6900
-
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- | contact the company at the address or phone# indicated above. |
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- | BAKER ENTERPRISES, 20 Ferro Drive, Sewell, NJ 08080 U.S.A. |
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