HelloSoft and Toshiba Showcase VoWLAN and VoIP Phone Solution Running Two Simultaneous Channels of Voice Over A Standard Wired and Wireless LAN Network on a Single ARM Core

HelloVoice™ software suite on the Toshiba T6TC1XB-0001 embedded controller is on display at the 2004 ARM Developers' Conference, Santa Clara, Calif.

SAN JOSE, Calif. , October 19, 2004 - HelloSoft, Inc., a leading provider of communication intellectual property and Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC), a leader in high-technology products, today announced an enhancement to HelloSoft's proven voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) software suite, which has been fully optimized for the Toshiba T6TC1XB-0001 embedded controller. The T6TC1XB-0001 is built on a single ARM926EJ-S™ processor core operating at 150 megahertz (MHz), and is now able to run two simultaneous channels of HelloSoft's software suite with G.729AB and G.723.1 vocoders and Echo Cancellation on each channel over a standard Wired and/or Wireless LAN network. The software reference design implementing the phone suite includes complex voice algorithms, protocols, call manager and system software running on the embedded Linux operating system (OS), and can be seen at the HelloSoft and Toshiba booths, booth 803 and 612 respectively, at the ARM Developers' Conference in Santa Clara, October 19 - 21.

The TAEC and HelloSoft solution represents a major step forward in assisting original equipment and original device manufacturers in significantly reducing the cost and complexity of developing Wired and Wireless VoIP endpoints. The optimized solution now runs two channels of voice and is ideal for Analog Telephone Adapters, IP phones, wireless IP phone handsets, residential gateways, integrated access devices and other VoIP-enabled devices.

"Voice is becoming increasingly important on wireless LAN connections, and we expect it to become a major driver of the WLAN market over the next few years," said Craig Mathias, a Principal with the wireless advisory firm Farpoint Group (Ashland, MA). "Low-cost, high-performance implementations are of course critical to achieving broad market appeal, and we believe the combination of Toshiba's chips and HelloSoft's software really points the way here."

"The T6TC1XB-0001 high-throughput system architecture was designed specifically for low-cost embedded networking applications, with hardware assist to offload most of the packet handling from the ARM926 core. This enables us to run HelloSoft's HelloVoice stack on Linux on the ARM926 with exceptional performance, at a low clock speed and without the need for a DSP core. This translates to lower costs for our customers," said Richard Tobias, vice president of the ASIC and Foundry Business Unit, TAEC. "This chip was implemented using the SoCMosaic™ custom chip design flow that enables our customers to deploy highly optimized custom products in six months. We're finding that many customers don't want to use the same silicon solution their competitors are using and are excited when they see what they can do with our Soft IP Platform."

"Two simultaneous channels of voice on a single ARM926EJ-S processor further demonstrates the capabilities of the ARM architecture, including the highly-efficient running of complex signal processing algorithms," said Mike Inglis, EVP, marketing of ARM. "The HelloSoft and Toshiba solution based on the T6TC1XB-0001 significantly reduces complexity, cost and time-to-market, and shows once again that good hardware and software system design is as important as raw CPU clock speed in getting the job done."

"This multi-channel solution from HelloSoft reinforces our leadership in the VoIP space, and our commitment to bring single-chip, cost-effective solutions to price-sensitive markets," said Muhammad Helal, vice president of marketing and sales, HelloSoft. "It is our ability to reduce the complexity and optimize complex algorithms to such a degree that has enabled us to introduce such an easy to integrate, yet complex communications solution."

The HelloVoice software suite on the Toshiba reference design is an enhanced solution including G.711, G.726, G.723.1 and G.729AB vocoders, G.168-2000 Line Echo Canceller, G.167 Acoustic Echo Canceller, Voice Activity Detection (VAD), Comfort Noise Generation (CNG), Jitter Buffer, Packet Loss Concealment (PLC), DTMF Tone Detection and Generation, Call Progressive Tone (CPT), Caller ID, RTP/RTCP protocols, SIP (RFC 3261) Call Signalling, Call Control Manager, and Multi-Channel System-Level Framework.

The T6TC1XB-0001 embedded controller is part of the Toshiba SoCMosaic custom chip program that lowers development costs and enables tape-out in as little as six months using mix-and-match IP blocks and a standardized bus. The T6TC1XB-0001 embedded controller runs at 150MHz, and features two full-duplex Ethernet 10/100 Media Access Controllers (MAC), an ARM926EJ-S core with16KB instruction cache and 16KB data cache, 8KB Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) IP Packet Buffer, Memory Management Unit (MMU), Real-Time Clock (RTC), counter, interrupt controller, Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART), watchdog timer, General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO), 33MHz Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) host controller, static and non-volatile memory (NOR-Flash/SRAM/ROM) interface controller, Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM) controller, Direct Memory Access (DMA) and Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) /Scan /Built-In-Self- Test (BIST.)

Pricing and Availability

HelloSoft's VoIP Suite is available now. Future releases of the HelloVoice software will include T.38 Fax-over-IP capabilities, followed by the integration of HelloSoft's Wireless Intellectual Property for a low-cost and powerful Voice-over-Wireless LAN handset.

The Toshiba T6TC1XB-0001 embedded controller is available now from TAEC and is priced at $13.50 each in 1,000-piece quantities.

*About TAEC

Combining quality and flexibility with design engineering expertise, TAEC brings a breadth of advanced, next-generation technologies to its customers. This broad offering includes semiconductors, flash memory-based storage solutions, and displays for the computing, wireless, networking, automotive and digital consumer markets.

TAEC is an independent operating company owned by Toshiba America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation, the fifth largest semiconductor company worldwide in terms of global sales for the year 2003 according to Gartner/Dataquest's Worldwide Semiconductor Market Share Ranking. Toshiba is a world leader in high-technology products with more than 300 major subsidiaries and affiliates worldwide. For additional company and product information, please visit TAEC's website at at http://chips.toshiba.com. 

About HelloSoft, Inc.

HelloSoft licenses customizable Physical Layer and Networking Protocol IP to semiconductor companies and OEMs for Voice-Over-Packet, Wireless LAN, and 2.5G/3G Wireless. HelloSoft's solutions are provided as a suite of integrated products that include DSP software, Networking software, RTL, a complete reference design and design services to customize these solutions to customer needs. Through this total solutions approach and strategy of offering Software and Hardware IP and engineering services, HelloSoft allows companies to acquire "off-the-shelf" technology that can accelerate new product development in an industry that is driven by complexity, change and innovation. For more information visit www.hellosoft.com

information, is current and believed to be accurate on the date of the announcement, but is subject to change without prior notice. Technical and application information contained here is subject to the most recent applicable Toshiba product specifications. In developing designs, please ensure that Toshiba products are used within specified operating ranges as set forth in the most recent Toshiba product specifications and the information set forth in Toshiba's "Handling Guide for Semiconductor Devices," or "Toshiba Semiconductor Reliability Handbook." This information is available at http://www.chips.toshiba.com , or from your TAEC representative.

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