TAK'ASIC Launches New System-On-Chip Solution to Power Next Generation of Color Printers and MFPs for the Office

TAKPRO-800 Ultra-Fast SOC Designed to Drive Breakthrough Price/Performance in Growing Office Color Market

SAN MATEO, Calif., and PARIS, France, March 25, 2003 -  TAK'ASIC, a leading innovator in dedicated imaging processors and solutions, today introduced the TAKPRO-800, believed to be the fastest and most highly integrated SOC for office color printers and imaging solutions available based on current industry specifications. The TAKPRO-800 integrates all system, networking, compression and communications functions in a single SOC capable of delivering up to 40 color pages-per-minute (ppm), providing OEMs with an unparalleled combination of high-performance processing and functionality.

The TAKPRO-800 is ideally positioned to power a full range of emerging color page printers and MFPs. Based on most industry estimates the fast growing office-class color printer category grew over 20 percent last year. According to Peter Grant, Principal Analyst at Gartner Dataquest, a leading market research firm, "new products will span the range from entry-level color lasers for the small office/home office to higher-speed color LED printers that will bring affordable color into the workgroup and enterprise."

Integrated for Competitive Advantage
Compared with traditional ASIC solutions, the TAKPRO-800 integrates all requisite functionality needed for a print controller. In addition to providing Ethernet, system functions, compression/decompression and image rendering, the TAKPRO-800 is the only SOC incorporating both tandem and multi-pass laser print engine interfaces as well as a full imaging pipeline optimized for MFPs. The result is a fully streamlined print, MFP or copier controller that enables OEMs to significantly reduce component costs while delivering optimal system performance. With the TAKPRO-800 all that is required to complete a controller for a laser printer or MFP is memory (RAM) and current drivers.

Industry Leading Performance
The TAKPRO-800 delivers blazing fast print speed for laser printer devices of up to 40ppm color and 160ppm back/white at A4/600 dpi, and achieves resolution of up to 4,800 dpi. For laser copiers, performance is 25ppm color and 70ppm black/white. To deliver high-performance system and control processing with dense code size, the TAKPRO-800 is powered by an ARM® 946E 32-bit CPU with 8 K-byte data cache and 8 K-byte instruction cache.

The TAKPRO-800 has robust compression functions including a JBIG* coder/decoder. The JBIG codec improves data throughput and increases print flow by enabling additional pages to be stored in buffer memory. The TAKPRO-800 also incorporates a RLE decoder for ultra fast color processing at 1Byte per clock rate.

"Raster printer architecture combined with JBIG compression technique now allows a design approach with no forced compromises on either the cost or performance side," said Philippe Gautier, co-founder and CTO of TAK'ASIC.

Designed for Flexibility
The TAKPRO-800's open, PCI-based raster printer architecture provides OEMs with a highly flexible and low cost platform to leverage across multiple color imaging products. The open print engine interface facilitates direct video print output with 1/8th pixel precision, internal or external video clock generation and a bit rate up to 280Mbit/s per channel.

"OEMs recognize that continued growth of color in the office is dependent upon providing increasing value, performance and output quality. The TAKPRO-800 design has integrated all the necessary functionality and features required for OEMs to deliver on these customer needs," said Jean-Paul Vernière, co-founder and CEO of TAK'ASIC.

Full Solution for Accelerated Development
TAK'ASIC provides a complete OEM development solution to accelerate time-to-market. The TAKRDK development kit supports reference designs for print and copy applications including APIs, firmware (VxWorks based) and drivers. The TAKFOX imaging suite of software tools and libraries is also available to OEMs for evaluation.

The TAKPRO-800 will be packaged in a standard JEDEC ball grid array. General availability of customer samples is planned for July 2003. For additional technical information on the TAKPRO-800, please visit www.takasic.com or contact our sales representatives.

The TAK-PRO 800 joins the company's imaging processor family that includes the TAK'B3, a powerful compression chip selected for use last year in the award winning MINOLTA-QMS magicolor 2300 DL currently the industry's most affordable color laser printer.

About TAK'ASIC
TAK'ASIC is a leading innovator in dedicated imaging processors and solutions for the digital office equipment market including advanced copiers, printers, multi-function peripherals, scanners, faxes and network servers. Based in San Mateo, Calif., and Paris, France, TAK'ASIC serves the needs of OEMs requiring leading edge technology and outstanding price/performance. Founded in 1991, the company maintains development, sales and support locations in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Additional information about TAK'ASIC can be found at www.takasic.com.

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