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ISD Announces Shipment Of Its 25 Millionth Chip To Panasonic For Innovative Cellular Phone Design
ChipCorder® Technology Integrated into Cellular Phones to Enable "Voice Memo" Feature
LAS VEGAS, Nev., January 5, 1996 - ISD (Information Storage Devices), Inc., (NASDAQ: ISDI), a leading supplier of semiconductor voice record and playback solutions, announced today at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES), that it recently shipped its 25 millionth ChipCorder® microchip, an indication of the strong market growth for voice chips embedded into products such as cellular phones. ISD's 25 millionth chip was shipped to Matsushita Communication Industrial UK, Ltd., which uses ISD's ChipCorder® products, in its digital Panasonic G400 GSM cellular telephones.
"This milestone illustrates that ChipCorder® products continue to be the most effective solution for incorporating record and playback capabilities in handheld products," said ISD president and CEO David Angel. "ISD's single-chip solution, low power consumption and high voice quality make ChipCorder® products the solution of choice. ISD expects continued rapid growth in the number of ChipCorder® devices incorporated into products like the Panasonic G400 GSM cellular phone, as more consumers become aware of the value of voice record and playback features."
Panasonic's G400 GSM cellular telephone uses the ISD1420 to enable a voice memo feature built directly into the phone. With a simple push-button control, consumers can record parts of a conversation or a personal message on the ISD ChipCorder® device for later retrieval. This feature is especially useful for recording critical information such as directions or telephone numbers while driving. Panasonic, the first company to embed the voice memo feature into cellular phones, has set the trendfor other companies. At least two other manufacturers have followed suit by incorporating similar features into their latest cellular telephone models.
"We selected the ISD ChipCorder® product because of its compact size, high-quality sound and low power consumption, all of which are extremely important criteria in the design of cellular phones," said Jeffrey Suff, senior director at Matsushita. "Because ChipCorder® technology has distinguished the G400 GSM cellular telephone from others on the market, Panasonic expects to incorporate the voice memo function in future Panasonic products."
CES attendees can view the new phone at ISD's booth # 17753, located in the Cellular Pavilion at the Sands Convention Center.
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 unique "multilevel" storage methodology in which one of more than 250 distinct voltage levels are 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 an 8:1 advantage over the than the alternative two-level, digitized signal storage technology. Additionally, ChipCorder® products eliminate the need for external A/D and D/A circuits to, providinge 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 when batteries wear out. ChipCorder® devices can be recorded and re-recorded reliably over 100,000 times.
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, greeting cards and personalized gifts. It is also found in industrial announcement/annunciator systems, instrumentation, and building security systems.
About ISD
ISD, Inc. designs, develops and markets semiconductor voice solutions for applications in the consumer, communications and industrial markets. The company is located at 2045 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, Calif., 95125. Telephone: (408) 369-2400. Fax: (408) 369-2422. Details on the Panasonic G400 GSM phone are available from Matsushita Communications Industrial UK, Ltd. at 011-44-1635-871466. Fax: 011-44-1635-871345.
Note: ChipCorder® is a trademark of ISD, Inc. All other trademarks are held by their respective manufacturers. Panasonic is a registered trademark of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.
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