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Editorial Contact:
Akiko Ishiyama
Renesas Technology America, Inc.
(408) 382-7407
akiko.ishiyama@renesas.com
RENESAS TECHNOLOGY EXPANDS ITS SUCCESSFUL COMETTM
PROGRAM TO FURTHER ACCELERATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF VERTICALLY
INTEGRATED, ADVANCED TELEMATICS SYSTEMS
To enable a broad range of telematics design alternatives,
phase II enhancements to the COMET partnership program will
provide greater flexibility and range in choosing technologies
ported on SuperH based platforms
SAN JOSE, Calif., — October 27, 2003
— Renesas Technology America, Inc., a U.S. subsidiary
of the new joint-venture semiconductor company established
by Hitachi, Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation with
the top microcontroller (MCU) market share, worldwide -- today
initiated phase II of the Community Enabling Telematics (COMET™)
partnership program, a cooperative association launched in
October 2002. To accelerate the proliferation of telematics
and car infotainment system (CIS) products based on SuperH®
(SH-4 series) RISC processors and chipsets, Renesas and its
software and middleware partners are adding new, emerging
technologies to the consortium, making it more comprehensive
and up-to-date.
According to Tatsuo Yamamoto, vice president
of the SuperH system solution business unit at Renesas Technology
America, Inc., "The COMET program has been very successful,
producing fine-tuned, automotive-grade reference platforms
that let system engineers easily evaluate different system
solutions for new designs. The COMET phase II program capitalizes
on the success of the initial implementation, and further
expands the range of partner solutions that runs on SH-based
platforms. For example, planned new additions to our comprehensive
one-box system development solutions for in-vehicle products
include browsers, GUIs, embedded databases, and more."
"One of the most critical elements for developing advanced
telematics systems is to have access to a complete set of
end-to-end solutions that include a CPU processor, an operating
system, other software and middleware," said Robert Schumacher,
business line executive, wireless, Delphi Delco Electronics
Systems. “This program has helped simplify our development
process by making several options of software and middleware
available on a single hardware platform so that we can easily
evaluate various development methods and help speed up our
development.”
COMET status update
In the 12 months since the COMET program
was launched, hundreds of COMET platforms (CIS “US7751R-HRP10D”
and "Biscayne™" types) and COMET kits have
been shipped to customers all round the globe, increasing
the design momentum in the telematics space for Renesas and
its eight partners from Phase I: Clarity LLC; Extended Systems
Inc. (NADAQ: XTND); Fonix® Corporation (OTC BB:FNIX.OB);
IBM Corporation (NYSE: IBM); QNX® Software Systems Ltd.;
SiRF Technology, Inc.; Stonestreet One, Inc.; and Wavemakers
Inc.
Joint marketing activities like the well-attended
COMET Conference 2003 (held in Detroit, Michigan in March
2003), as well as publications such as white papers and quarterly
newsletters, have promoted the products and technologies offered
by the members of the COMET association. The cooperative approach
to serving the needs of the telematics market has resulted
in innovations such as Demo Kits containing demonstration
software that can be downloaded from the association Web site:
www.comet-alliance.com. More importantly, it has produced
design wins with integrated system solutions for key customers
worldwide.
In Phase II of the COMET program, an evolutionary
step, ten partners will be added, selected from an initial
field of 23. Thus, the number of partners including Renesas
will double to 20.
COMET members enthusiastic about program
Kiyo Oishi, President and COO of ACCESS Systems
America, Inc., said, "ACCESS is pleased to join the COMET
partner program, and we are committed to its success because
we see it as a significant step forward in the evolution of
the U.S. telematics market. We have optimized our NetFront®
Internet browser technology for the SuperH environment, ensuring
a powerful end-user experience."
Mark Vogel, founder and CEO of Encirq Corporation,
a supplier of embedded database and streaming data management
technologies, tools, and component libraries for the rapid
development of embedded telematics systems, said, "We
are thrilled to have been selected to join this select group
of partners that are enabling an end-to-end telematics solution
for the SuperH RISC processor. Through the COMET program,
telematics device manufacturers can be assured that Encirq
3e is fully tested to be compatible with the platform and
can be used to speed development to generate extremely compact,
high-performance, application-specific data management components."
Joe DiNucci, VP of Sales for Immersion Corp.
(NASDAQ: IMMR), a leading developer and licensor of haptic
(touch) feedback technology, said, "Allowing drivers
to get and use information through their sense of touch, rather
than sight or sound alone is a growing trend in the auto industry.
Immersion's participation in the COMET II Initiative will
help automakers cost-effectively integrate touch technology
in a broader range of vehicles. System engineers can easily
use haptic technology to reduce the complexity of today's
driving environment, potentially improving safety while adding
a new sense of involvement and control for the driver."
David Tolub, vice president and co-manager,
DiskOnChip business unit of M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers
Ltd. (NASDAQ: FLSH), which offers flash memory solutions for
mobile and embedded systems, said, “We are very excited
to join the COMET partnership program. Integrating M-Systems’
DiskOnChip with Renesas’ high-performance SuperH processor
enables customers developing feature-rich applications to
enjoy a high-density flash memory solution, uncompromised
reliability and increased file-system functionality with the
best cost structure in the industry.”
Marc Doré, President and CEO of Mindready
Solutions Inc., a leading supplier of automation, embedded
and test systems of the automotive market and other markets,
said, "We are pleased to participate to the COMET partnership.
The combination of Mindready’s IEEE-1394 products, systems
and engineering services to the COMET partners’ complementary
technologies will fasten the adoption and the time to market
of telematics applications in the automotive industry."
Alan Schwartz, General Manager of Embedded
Speech Solutions at ScanSoft, Inc. (NASDAQ: SSFT), the leading
supplier of speech solutions said, "We are using the
COMET partnership with Renesas to develop our next generational
speech applications for the automotive industry, such as voice
destination entry (VDE). The software and hardware solutions
available in COMET give us the power and flexibility to push
the boundaries of what speech recognition and text to speech
can do on embedded devices."
Malcolm Colton, VP worldwide marketing of
Solid Information Technology Corp., which provides solutions
for telematics data management within a single device and
a data distribution mechanism for moving data between applications
within the telematics infrastructure, said, " As a member
of the COMET alliance, Solid contributes the first Autonomic
Data Management Platform. Designed for distributed applications
like telematics, Solid ensures that the data in telematics
applications takes care of itself. Running on the high speed
and highly efficient Renesas SuperH processors, Solid provides
a reliable data storage and transport infrastructure that
speeds time to market and lowers total cost of ownership."
Prosanto Sarkar, Director of Marketing at
Tilcon Software Ltd., manufacturer of the Tilcon Interface
Development Suite (IDS), noted, "The COMET program brings
together a winning combination of tightly integrated hardware
and software which will help automotive manufacturers and
integrators reduce their development time, costs and effort.
We are delighted to bring Tilcon's all-in-one user interface
technology to the COMET initiative. Tilcon is looking forward
to working with our partners on exciting new applications
combining advanced instrumentation, GIS, telematics and multimedia
interfaces."
"In working with the COMET Program,
Wind River is furthering its commitment to delivering its
customers integrated platform-based telematics & infotainment
solutions that help them accelerate the development of automotive
devices," said Marc Serughetti, director of marketing
for automotive, industrial, aerospace and defense at Wind
River Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: WIND). "We look forward
to working with COMET to build solutions based on WIND RIVER
PLATFORM for CAR INFOTAINMENT, that effectively accelerate
time-to-market, lower costs, and reduce the risk associated
within the integration process."
V.R.Venkatesh, Vice President, of Wipro Technologies
(NYSE: WIT), a comprehensive supplier of IT and System Integration
services, said, "As a System Integration partner, Wipro
has both hardware and software platform expertise, and coupled
with our embedded and product design skills we can support
Renesas customers in building their Telematics applications
around Bigsur and Biscayne platforms. This is an important
milestone in our roadmap and enables us to provide effective
and complete Telematics solutions.”
Reader contact
For more information about the software and middleware products
offered by the members of the COMET program, readers can visit
the respective Web sites or contact the companies directly.
For more information on the COMET program, readers can visit
the COMET site at www.comet-alliance.com or contact Anand
Ramamoorthy at 408-382-7624.
About Renesas Technology Corp.
Renesas Technology Corp. designs and manufactures highly integrated
semiconductor system solutions for mobile, networking, automotive,
industrial and digital home electronics markets. Established
on April 1, 2003 as a joint venture between Hitachi, Ltd.
(TSE:6501, NYSE:HIT) and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TSE:6503)
and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Renesas Technology is one
of the largest semiconductor companies in the world and the
number one microcontroller supplier globally. Besides microcontrollers,
Renesas Technology offers system-on-chip devices, Smart Card
ICs, mixed-signal products, flash memories, SRAMs and more.
www.renesas.com
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Note: COMET is a trademark of Renesas Technology
America, Inc. SuperH is a registered US trademark of Renesas
Technology Corp. Other trademarks are the properties of their
respective owners.
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