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ISD's ChipCorder® Technology Featured in Recordable Greeting Cards in Japanese Post Offices
SAN JOSE, Calif., April 15, ISD (Information Storage Devices), Inc., (NASDAQ: ISDI), a leading supplier of semiconductor voice record and playback solutions, today announced that the Japanese Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (JMPT) is offering user-recordable greeting cards enabled by ISD's ChipCorder® record and playback products. Initial sales of the greeting cards began April 1 at the 100 largest post offices in Japan.
The cards, manufactured by Tsuchiya Company, Ltd., Nagoya, Japan, are available in three different designs and are priced at Yen1,500 (approximately U.S. $14). At a touch of a button, consumers can record 20-second messages with birthday wishes, wedding congratulations and other greetings in their own voice.
The JMPT, already familiar with ISD's ChipCorder® record and playback technology incorporated into Japanese cellular and personal handy phone systems (PHS), was interested in developing a greeting card which could record natural, clear sounding messages for quality-conscious consumers. Additionally, it was important to the JMPT that recorded messages be retained without power or battery back-up.
"We found ISD's ChipCorder® technology to be the only solution which met JMPT's criteria," said Yasuyuki Ohara, president of Tsuchiya. "Because the devices provide such natural sounding voice reproduction, consumers of our greeting cards can record messages in the privacy of their own homes to truly personalize their sentiments."
"We are very pleased that the Japanese Ministry of Post and Telecommunications has given us the 'seal of approval' for this program," said David Angel, president and CEO of ISD. "Given the sales of other Japanese products that utilize ISD chips for audio recording -- such as cellular and PHS phones, toys, tapeless pocket recorders and telephone answering machines -- we anticipate that these recordable greeting cards will be received favorably in Japan."
The recordable cards integrate ISD's 20-second ISD1420 chip. ChipCorder® technology allows users to record and re-record messages reliably over 100,000 times. ISD's technology also automatically adjusts the level of the voice to the proper recording level before storing the message. After the message is played, the chip automatically "powers down" to conserve battery life.
ChipCorder® Technology
ISD's patented ChipCorder® technology is a single-chip solution for voice recording and playback in a variety of consumer, communications and industrial applications. It uses a proprietary "multilevel" storage methodology in which one of more than 250 distinct voltage levels are precisely stored per memory cell. The technology enables voice and audio signals to be stored directly in their natural form into nonvolatile EEPROM memory cells. This provides approximately eight times more storage space for any given memory size than the alternative two-level, digitized signal storage technology. Additionally, ChipCorder® products eliminate the need for external A/D and D/A circuits, providing a single-chip, solid-state solution that requires no software, unlike other alternatives which are more difficult to integrate.
Furthermore, ChipCorder® technology offers high-quality, voice reproduction because the voice signal is stored in its direct form and not encoded or compressed. It is the only single-chip, non-volatile solution available. Recorded messages will be retained even if batteries wear out.
To date, ChipCorder® technology has been incorporated into hundreds of products, including cellular phones, pagers, personal voice organizers, telephone answering devices, voice "message pads," games, toys, interactive books, alarms, point-of-sale displays, novelty items and personalized gifts. It is also found in industrial announcement/annunciator systems, instrumentation, and building security systems.
About Tsuchiya
Tsuchiya Group Companies annually supply over $700 million worth of specialty chemicals, electronics, parts and goods to the major Japanese automotive manufacturers, and other industries and markets. Roughly 40 percent of these products are manufactured in-house and 60 percent are distributed goods (including imports). Tsuchiya Group Companies consist of 12 branch offices and 10 manufacturing subsidiaries, two of which are located in North America. Tsuchiya's headquarters is located at 2-9-29 Kamimaezu, Naka-ku, Nagoya City, Japan. Telephone: 81-52-331-5451. Fax: 81-52-332-2148. Contact: Dr. T. Sakai, overseas operations director.
About ISD
ISD designs, develops and markets integrated circuit solutions for voice applications in the consumer, communications and industrial markets. The company is located at 2045 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, Calif., 95125, USA. Telephone: (408) 369-2400. Fax: (408) 369-2422. World Wide Web home page: http://www.isd.com.
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Note: ChipCorder® is a trademark of ISD, Inc. All other products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
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