Toshiba and HelloSoft demonstrate low-cost, DSP-free VOIP phone

HelloVoice™ software suite on the Toshiba T6TC1XB-001 embedded controller-based hardware reference design is on display at the 2004 VoIP Developer Conference, San Jose, Calif.

SAN JOSE, Calif., August 3, 2004 - HelloSoft, Inc., a leading provider of communication intellectual property and Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC), a leader in high-technology products, today announced the development of a complete voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone software suite fully optimized for the Toshiba T6TC1XB-001 embedded controller. The T6TC1XB-001 is built on a single ARM926EJ-S™ processor core. The software reference design implementing the phone suite includes complex voice algorithms and protocols running on the embedded Linux operating system (OS) and can be seen at the HelloSoft booth, booth 105, at the VoIP Developer Conference in San Jose, August 3 - 4.

The TAEC and HelloSoft solution implements all VoIP functions, including codecs, line echo cancellers, acoustic echo cancellers, telephony components, and telephony signalling stack, on the Toshiba T6TC1XB-001-based reference design. The reference design is built on a single ARM926EJ-S processor core running the embedded Linux OS.

"The TAEC and HelloSoft solution represents a step forward in assisting original equipment and original device manufacturers in significantly reducing the cost and complexity of developing VoIP phone systems," said Richard Tobias, vice president of the ASIC and Foundry business unit, TAEC. "The optimized solution is powerful enough to implement two channels of voice for VoIP phones, wireless IP phones, residential gateways, integrated access devices and other VoIP-enabled devices."

"The Toshiba T6TC1XB-001 embedded controller-based design together with HelloSoft's expertise in utilizing RISC processors efficiently for complex DSP algorithms enabled us to develop this high-performance, ultra low-cost VoIP solution," said Krishna Yarlagadda, CEO and president, HelloSoft. "This low-cost VoIP solution from our two companies cannot be underestimated in regards to its effect on enabling the market."

The HelloVoice™ software suite on the Toshiba reference design is an enhanced solution including G.711, G.726, G.723.1 and G.729AB vocoders, G.168-2000 Line Echo Canceller, Voice Activity Detection (VAD), Comfort Noise Generation (CNG), Jitter Buffer, Packet Loss Concealment (PLC), DTMF Tone Detection and Generation, Call Progressive Tone (CPT), SIP/RTP/RTCP Call Signalling and Control, and multi-channel system-level framework.

The T6TC1XB-001 embedded controller is part of the Toshiba SoCMosaic™ custom chip program that lowers development costs and enables tape-out in as little as six months using mix-and-match IP blocks and a standardized bus. The T6TC1XB-001 embedded controller runs at 150MHz, and features two full-duplex Ethernet 10/100 Media Access Controllers (MAC), an ARM926EJ-S core, 2 x 16KB cache, 8KB Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Memory Management Unit (MMU), Real-Time Clock (RTC), counter, interrupt controller, Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART), watchdog timer, General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO), 33MHz Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), static and non-volatile memory (flash/SRAM/ROM) interface controller, Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM) controller, Direct Memory Access (DMA) and Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) /Scan /BIST.

Pricing and Availability
Voice components and protocols are available now from HelloSoft. The Toshiba T6TC1XB-0001 embedded controller and its reference design are available now from TAEC and is priced at $13.50 each in 1,000-piece quantities.

About TAEC
Combining quality and flexibility with design engineering expertise, TAEC brings a breadth of advanced, next-generation technologies to its customers. This broad offering includes semiconductors, flash memory-based storage solutions, and displays for the computing, wireless, networking, automotive and digital consumer markets.

TAEC is an independent operating company owned by Toshiba America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation, one of the five largest semiconductor companies worldwide in terms of global sales for the year 2003 according to Gartner/Dataquest's Worldwide Semiconductor Market Share Ranking. Toshiba is a world leader in high-technology products with more than 300 major subsidiaries and affiliates worldwide. For additional company and product information, please visit TAEC's website at chips.toshiba.com. 

About HelloSoft, Inc.
HelloSoft licenses customizable Physical Layer and Networking Protocol IP to semiconductor companies and OEMs for Voice-Over-Packet, Wireless LAN, and 2.5G/3G Wireless. HelloSoft's solutions are provided as a suite of integrated products that include DSP software, Networking software, RTL, a complete reference design and design services to customize these solutions to customer needs. Through this total solutions approach and strategy of offering Software and Hardware IP and engineering services, HelloSoft allows companies to acquire "off-the-shelf" technology that can accelerate new product development in an industry that is driven by complexity, change and innovation. For more information visit www.hellosoft.com.