Express Logic and Renesas Technology Team to Offer Audio-Video Media Player Reference Design

-- Express Logic, Inc., the worldwide leader in royalty-free real-time operating systems (RTOS), and Renesas Technology America, Inc., a US subsidiary of the world's No.1 supplier of microcontrollers, Renesas Technology Corp., today announced availability of a comprehensive reference design platform for powerful, inexpensive media players. The media player platform is based on Renesas’ SuperH SH-2A microcontroller architecture and Express Logic’s ThreadX® RTOS, and enables access and display of media from USB flash drives or SD memory cards. The media player will be demonstrated at Renesas’ 2008 Developers’ Conference this week in San Diego.

Media players form the basis for attractive consumer products such as digital picture frames that can display stored images and play recorded MP3 audio files. An example digital picture frame has been implemented and will be demonstrated at the Renesas DevCon in San Diego later this week. The reference design incorporates the following technology:

• Renesas SuperH SH7263 development system with USB high-speed host and SD memory card
• 640x480 VGA display
• Express Logic’s ThreadX RTOS, FileX file system, USBX USB stack, and PEGX GUI toolkit
• Application software that enables touchscreen user interface, image display and audio file play
• Ability to display and play PC-compatible image files (.jpg, .bmp) and audio files (.mp3, .wav, .wma, .aac, .ogg)

The reference design is aimed at system developers, providing them with a starting point for their products that saves significant time and greatly assists in timely project completion and faster time to market.

“This reference design incorporates comprehensive support for USB storage devices, interactive graphics, and application program control under our ThreadX RTOS,” commented William E. Lamie, president of Express Logic. “Typical reference designs include only basic RTOS support, but this media player goes well beyond the basics to include a wealth of technology that saves developers the time normally required to integrate such capabilities.”

“The media player reference design will enable our customers to bring SuperH-based consumer products to market much faster than ever before,” noted Brian Davis, director of MPU group at Renesas Technology America, Inc. “With Express Logic’s help, we’ve been able to put together an integrated hardware-software platform that otherwise would require man-months of development time. Renesas is pleased to offer this reference design for developers looking for fast time to market and low manufacturing cost.”

All software components are available through royalty-free licenses, which means that none of the software adds to bill-of-material (BOM) cost. The Renesas SH-2A platform demonstrates the powerful processing performance available from the 200-MHz superscalar SH7263 microcontroller when coupled with real-time ThreadX RTOS. The device’s application code is designed to use its floating-point unit (FPU) and onchip RAM for audio processing, while displaying images from a USB hosted memory stick or SD memory card on a VGA TFT LCD using its onchip LCD controller. Peripheral drivers and a board support package are available as part of the reference design.

Renesas and Express Logic will unveil the media player reference design at this week’s DevCon 2008 at the Westin Gaslamp Quarter Hotel, San Diego, CA. A joint lab will be presented on Wednesday, October 15th at 8:30 A.M., and developers may participate in an introduction to the media player system with hands-on development exercises and lab notes.

Pricing and Availability

The SH7263 reference design will be priced between $2,000 and $2,500 with sample boards available in Q1/2009.

About the Renesas Technology Developers’ Conference

Hosted by the world’s largest MCU supplier, the two-and-a-half-day technology conference gives system designers developing embedded systems special access to the latest advances in microprocessor and microcontroller technology, as well as practical solutions that can be applied to accelerate and improve their engineering projects. The event consists of about 80 courses on a wide range of hot topics, ranging from robust CAN connectivity for networked embedded systems, direct-drive solutions for TFT LCD panels in consumer electronics products, motor control methods for home appliances, to FlexRay technology and hybrid vehicles. Content-rich lectures and hands-on laboratory sessions will be led by embedded systems experts from Renesas and technology partners from a large support community of third-party suppliers. About 250-300 are expected to attend the event. Similar events will be hosted in Europe, Japan and Asia in the near future.

About Renesas Technology Corp.

Renesas Technology Corp. is one of the world's leading semiconductor system solutions providers for mobile, automotive and PC/AV (Audio Visual) markets and the world's No.1 supplier of microcontrollers. It is also a leading provider of LCD Driver ICs, Smart Card microcontrollers, RF-ICs, High Power Amplifiers, Mixed Signal ICs, System-on-Chip (SoC), System-in-Package (SiP) and more. Established in 2003 as a joint venture between Hitachi, Ltd. (TOKYO:6501) (NYSE:HIT) and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TOKYO:6503), Renesas Technology achieved consolidated revenue of 951 billion JPY in FY2007 (end of March 2008). Renesas Technology is based in Tokyo, Japan and has a global network of manufacturing, design and sales operations in 17 countries with 26,800 employees worldwide. For further information, please visit http://www.renesas.com.

About Express Logic

Headquartered in San Diego, CA, with field offices in Redditch, UK, and Hanover and Munich, Germany, Express Logic offers the most advanced run-time solutions and development tools for deeply embedded applications, including its popular ThreadX® RTOS, the high-performance NetX™ TCP/IP stack, the FileX® embedded FAT-compatible file system, the USBX™ Host/Device USB protocol stack, the PEGX™ GUI development kit, the BenchX™ Eclipse-based IDE, and the TraceX™ real-time graphical event trace and analysis tool. All products from Express Logic include full source-code and have no run-time royalties. For more information about Express Logic solutions, please visit www.expresslogic.com, call 1-888-THREADX, or email inquiries to sales@expresslogic.com.