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Stac 9410 High-Speed Data
Compression Chip 11/11/94 SAN DIEGO,
CALIFORNIA, U.S.A. 1994 NOV 11 (NB) -
- Stac Electronics (NASDAQ:STAC) has
announced the Stac(a) 9410 V.42bis
data compression accelerator. A
leading supplier of compression
products for data storage and
communication, Stac recently won a
patent dispute resulting in a 15
percent equity investment by
Microsoft.
According to Robert Lutz, Stac's
semiconductor product manager, the
9410 offers improved performance,
reduced power consumption and reduced
board area all at significant savings
because it allows modem manufacturers
to use 8-bit rather the more
expensive 16-bit CPUs (central
processing units).
Today's modems typically use
software on an internal CPU to
implement data compression. That
means less efficiency which can
consume more than 80 percent of a
modem's CPU overhead to perform the
task of compressing and decompressing
data, Lutz contends.
The result, says Lutz, is while
modem speeds have increased, the CPU
has had to become more powerful to
meet the needs of higher throughput
and the increased
compression/decompression
requirements.
Stac's 9410, akin to a co-
processor for modem data compression,
eliminates the speed bottleneck of
compression, allowing a low cost 8-
bit CPU to be used for high
performance V.34 (28.8kb/s) modems.
By incorporating Stac's new chip
into their designs, modem
manufacturers will realize
performance benefits and cost
reductions which can then be passed
on to their customers, Lutz claims.
Modems based on 8-bit CPUs may
fall far short of the performance
possible with 16-bit CPUs. However,
modems based on more powerful 16-bit
CPUs are considerably more
expensive.
Gary Clow, Stac's president and
chief executive officer, told
Newsbytes, "This chip will set a new
standard of performance and price.
Modem users will no longer have to
sacrifice modem speed for low cost.
Modems that don't use Stac's V.42bis
accelerator will miss the market by
either being too slow compared to the
competition, or too expensive."
Clow confirmed to Newsbytes that
Stac is committed to offering data
compression for PC telecommunications
as well as operating systems.
Additionally, the company will be
offering full featured
telecommunications remote control
software. Clow expects these new
offerings by the company to offset
any sales lost by the licensing
arrangement/settlement with
Microsoft.
For end users, the ability to get
16-bit performance with an 8-bit CPU
means lower cost, and lower power
consumption for longer battery life,
he said.
"8-bit modems simply can't keep
up with the fast V.34 standard, and
16-bit modems have too high of a
manufacturing cost," said Lutz. "But,
an 8-bit modem with the 9410 reduces
costs, and will outperform even a 16-
bit modem. We are not talking about
saving a few pennies here and there -
- we are talking about reducing the
modem manufacturing costs by several
dollars."
The 9410 is currently available
in sample quantities. Full volume
shipments are expected during the
first quarter of 1995 and will be
priced at about $7 in 100,000-unit
quantities.
Evaluation boards are available
from Stac for Rockwell's L39, and
Intel's 8051 and 80188 processors. A
9410 evaluation upgrade option is
also available for Rockwell's WCEM
modem evaluation platform.
(Nick Anis/19941111/Press
Contact: Cheryl Poland, Stac
Electronics, 619-431-7474; Greg
Peverill-Conti, Jennings & Company,
415-974-6200)