Hauppauge, New York - May 3, 2006 - SMSC (Nasdaq: SMSC) today announced that it has reached a licensing agreement with Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TSE: 6703) enabling its controllers that target next generation in-car information equipment market, such as digital car-audio systems, to connect through SMSC's MediaLB interface to a high-performance Media Oriented Systems Transport (MOST®) network. MOST is a de facto industry standard for automotive multimedia networking deployed by virtually every major European automobile manufacturer.
MOST multimedia networking technology enables new classes of multimedia applications in automobiles. It facilitates the efficient transport of real-time streaming multimedia, control and packet information over a single optical fiber or twisted pair wire, eliminating the need to run multiple wires throughout a vehicle, and enables automakers to decentralize infotainment functions into various components distributed around the vehicle. MediaLB, available on all of SMSC's Intelligent Network Interface Controllers (INICs), is a low cost, low pin count, serial on-PCB and inter-chip communication standard for multimedia applications. Its synchronous connection to the MOST network can transport diverse multimedia signals.
"Oki's decision to adopt the MediaLB interface as a conduit for transferring high-speed audio through its SoC devices to the MOST network further validates the performance and flexibility benefits that our bus protocol delivers," said Christian Thiel, Managing Director of SMSC's Automotive Infotainment Systems group. "MediaLB not only provides a bridge into the vehicle network infrastructure, but it is fast becoming a preferred method for distributing a diverse set of multimedia signals among the ICs inside automotive infotainment devices."
About MediaLB :
MediaLB is a new inter-chip communication technology developed by SMSC and proposed to the industry as an open standard to efficiently transport multimedia data between ICs. Today's chip to chip interface solutions are lacking a high-speed but low pin-count bus able to carry all types of multimedia data which can occur in modern multimedia systems, such as audio and video streams, control data and packet data such as navigation map information. MediaLB is a local de-multiplexed version of MOST. It is a serial bus that can connect several ICs to the MOST network interface controllers and runs synchronous to MOST. MediaLB provides highly efficient access to the MOST network through a high-speed low-cost interface. SMSC’s MediaLB IP implements both physical and application layers of MediaLB and supports up to 31 programmable logical channels and various host interfaces.
About SMSC:
Many of the world's most successful global technology companies rely upon SMSC as a go-to resource for semiconductor system solutions that span analog, digital and mixed-signal technologies. Leveraging substantial intellectual property, integration expertise and a comprehensive global infrastructure, SMSC solves design challenges and delivers performance, space, cost and time-to-market advantages to its customers. SMSC's application focus targets key vertical markets including mobile and desktop PCs, servers, consumer electronics, automotive infotainment and industrial applications. The Company has developed leadership positions in its select markets by providing application specific solutions such as mixed-signal PC system controllers, non-PCI Ethernet, ARCNET, MOST and Hi-Speed USB.
SMSC is headquartered in Hauppauge, New York with operations in North America, Taiwan, Asia and Europe. Engineering design centers are located in Arizona, New York, Texas and Karlsruhe, Germany. Additional information is available at http://www.smsc.com.