Creative Press Release

CREATIVE AND ZIILABS TO HOST ZII SUMMIT 2009 IN SHENZHEN, CHINA ON 1 AND 2 DECEMBER

Showcasing Zii StemCell Computing Technology, Platforms, Products, Services, Content and the Entire Zii Ecosystem that Empowers Partners to Rapidly Transform Ideas into World-Class Products

Singapore – 12 November 2009 – Creative Technology Ltd. and ZiiLABS, a pioneering media processor and platforms company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd. today announced the joint hosting of the Zii Summit 2009 to be held on 1 and 2 December 2009 at the Fu-Tian Shangri-La Hotel in Shenzhen, China.

With keynote addresses by Sim Wong Hoo, Founder and CEO of Creative Technology Ltd., and Hock Leow, President of ZiiLABS and 3DLABS, the event promises to share with partners how StemCell Computing Technology and the Zii Plaszma Platform, with its complete suite of ready-to-market solutions, can springboard OEMs and developers rapidly into world markets.

A press conference and seminar will be held on the first day to showcase Zii technology, platforms, products, services, content and the entire Zii Ecosystem.

Technical sessions will also be held to share with partners on how they can leverage on the Zii Plaszma Platform and its various modules, backed by state-of-the-art technologies, brand equities and award-winning product industrial designs. Partners would be empowered to create energy-efficient and high performance 3D, HD products at a low cost and and bring them to market quickly. In addition, partners will be introduced to the comprehensive e-commerce, branding and marketing system which would help radically increase the effectiveness of their market reach to customers.

A concurrent exhibition will be held over the two days to showcase a full range of OEM-ready Zii-Powered Devices, running on ZiiLABS’ very own ZMS-05 Media Rich Processor Chip. Also on display will be the recently announced ZMS-08 media processor, which showcases the world’s first 1080p Blu-ray quality video decoding on a small credit card-sized module.

Summit invitees include academicians, media and business and technology partners. Participation in the Zii Summit 2009 is by invitation only.

Singapore Business-Times Article

Creative unveils new Zii chip in Beijing

CREATIVE Technology yesterday unveiled the most powerful chip under its fledgling Zii stable – adding more impetus to the MP3 player maker’s new business of supplying low-powered and multimedia-savvy computer chips and components to electronics makers worldwide.

The new chip – made-to-order by Taiwanese foundry TSMC and coined ZMS-08 – was launched in an event in Beijing. It is said to be four times more powerful than its predecessor but consumes only half the power.

Creative minted its Zii technology at the start of this year. Developed by the company’s graphics chip subsidiary 3DLabs, which has now been renamed ZiiLabs, it is trumpeted as a new type of chip platform that lets third-party electronics manufacturers make more powerful, less power-hungry and cheaper products. Like its predecessor, the latest Zii chip is aimed at makers of smartphones, netbooks, video-conferencing systems, connected TVs, digital signage systems, home media hubs, Web tablets and others.

But with a raft of new features – including Blu-ray quality video playback – and improved performance, the ZMS-08 will help Creative unlock more doors into this diverse market, said ZiiLabs president Hock Leow.

Speaking to BT before the Beijing launch, he said the interest for Zii has especially intensified since Creative brought out a hand-held device based on Zii, called Zii EGG, in July this year.

Adoption of the technology has also been rising. Mr Leow said that a fleet of finished products powered by Zii are expected to be brought out by manufacturers next month during Creative’s first Zii summit, in China’s Shenzhen. This event is expected to draw ‘thousands’ of visitors.

But according to epiZENter, it’s far more. According to the depiction kingone put up, it seems to resemble a Nokia Internet Tablet powered by the company’s oracle: the Zii. Yup, that’s right. The first official consumer device with the Zii will be a handheld, internet-enabled, touchscreen device with support for pictures, text and video. Certainly Amazon, Sony, and Barnes and Noble have their devices that can do the first two, but the latter will be an interesting step forward for the market.

Perhaps more exciting as a Creative fan is the publishing support- epiZENter reports that the MediaBook and Creative are in talks with a major Singaporean content provider, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) to supply the new tablet with text, video, audio, and photos.

It is notable, however, that the MediaBook appears to be aimed at the Singapore educational market first. Creative is teaming up with SPH and ST Electronics to create the “FutureBook”, a Singaporean government initiative to create the interactive book of the future. Inside the press release is the statistics, which notably includes the educational market, which is where I think it will be launched first. By teaming up with the Singapore government, it allows the company to fund much of the production. It’s similar to how the US defense industry works- the government gives money to Lockheed Martin (or similar) to build new fighter jets. The government will still end up paying for the jet, but the company can also sell to other partners- Canada, UK, Germany, etc. I think the MediaBook could be similar. First for research and the SG government, but then it will open up to the general public. What do you guys think?

FutureBooks partner network
The convergence of media has resulted in many opportunities in the digital market.
Today, people want to get information on the go, be it through their mobile phone,
Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) or in more recent years, e-book readers like
Amazon’s Kindle. There is opportunity in this emerging sub-sector for Singapore
companies to be part of the value chain. To spur the development, delivery and managing of innovative applications and content on the e-book platform, a FutureBooks partner network championed by major
industry players such as Creative Technology and SPH together with other key
industry members such as Personal e-Motion (PEM), Singapore Centre for Chinese
Language (SCCL), Popular e-Learning Holdings, Times Publishing Group and
Pearson Education has been established. Together with MDA, the partner network
invites companies with innovative ideas for applications, services and business
models, to leverage on the technology, global distribution network as well as
educational content offered by the partner network members.

Successful proposals will be able to leverage on the wide reach offered by the
combined partner network. This includes more than 12.7 million news readers globally,
500 language teachers from 475 schools in Singapore and across the Southeast Asia
region, more than 350,000 Popular members with retail presence in 117 stores in
Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, and markets in more than seven countries in
Asia, including China.

Mr Willie Png, Vice President, Creative Technology said: “With the advent of the
Internet, the global scenario for learning is fast changing. New innovative technologies
play key roles in defining the future of learning which calls for new ways to create,
deliver and consume content. Always at the forefront of innovation, Ceative offers an
open platform that enable industry players to provide services and develop
applications and devices for the world of future learning.

MDA also hopes that the FutureBooks initiative will draw synergy from the Media in
Learning initiative announced recently by generating innovative applications with
Learning-related content to reach a wider global audience.

SG Government News Release

epiZENter

See the post over at ZiiEGG.com

ZiiLABS

Amsterdam – 11 September 2009 - ZiiLABS, a pioneering media processor and platforms company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd. announced that it is collaborating with Adobe as part of the Open Screen Project to optimize and enable Adobe® Flash® Player, a key component of the Adobe Flash Platform to enhance the Web experience across a wide range of mobile and digital home devices.

The ZiiLABS accelerated implementations of Adobe Flash Player enable users to experience uncompromised Web browsing, full H.264 HD video playback and rich Flash technology based content on any platform based on its ZMS media-rich applications processors and recently announced handheld Zii EGG StemCell Computer.

“Users want the same rich Web experience on all their devices, be it their internet tablet, mobile device or high-definition TV and like Adobe, we are dedicated to deliver the best visual experience on all these platforms,” said Tim Lewis, Director of Marketing and Partner Relations, ZiiLABS. “Our long heritage implementing OpenGL, 3D graphics and multi-format video acceleration put us in a great position to work with Adobe to provide a no-compromise implementation of Adobe Flash Player 10 and Adobe AIR™ on ZMS processors.”

The Open Screen Project is a broad initiative of industry leaders working to deliver a consistent runtime environment across devices. Led by Adobe, the Open Screen Project is dedicated to enable Web content and standalone applications across PCs, netbooks, mobile devices, televisions and other consumer electronics that take advantage of Adobe Flash Platform capabilities. For more information, please visit www.openscreenproject.org.

“We are excited to welcome ZiiLABS as a new participant to the Open Screen Project,” said Anthony Haag, Director of Business Development, Open Screen Project, Adobe. “As a provider of innovative application processors, hardware platforms and middleware, ZiiLABS’ support for Flash Player 10 and AIR will help deliver much richer and more immersive user experiences across a broad range of new devices and consumer electronics.”

About Flash Platform

The Adobe Flash Platform is a complete system of integrated tools, frameworks, clients and servers for the development of Web applications, content and video that runs consistently across operating systems and devices. Adobe Flash Player content reaches over 98 percent of Internet-enabled desktops, and Adobe Flash technology is the number one platform for video on the Web. In addition, the mobile runtime has shipped and delivered Flash based content on close to 40 percent of all new mobile phones and devices in 2008. For more information about the Adobe Flash Platform visit www.adobe.com/flashplatform.

About ZiiLABS

ZiiLABS is a worldwide leader in low-power, media-rich application processors, hardware platforms and advanced middleware that enable OEMs, ODMs, System Integrators and Software Developers to deliver best-in-class products across a broad range of consumer electronics and embedded markets. Originally founded in 1994 as 3DLABS, the company re-branded and joined with the Personal Digital Entertainment group of Creative Technology to form ZiiLABS in January 2009. ZiiLABS now has over 800 R&D engineers working on ZiiLABS related projects and has invested US$1 billion and 10,000 man years in media processing solutions. The company has offices in the UK, China, USA and Singapore.

As for the Zen touch screen x-fi2, I think some smart people have guessed correctly why it had to be released. It will make sure we will continue to generate sufficient revenue so as to cut losses and possibly break even this holiday season while we prepare for the Zii updates…

Breaking even over this quarter would amount to quite a turnabout for the Singapore company, who has posted losses for several straight quarters. Helping to feed that ambition is $6.1 million in funding from a divestment in QALA Singapore, a local ISP. I’m certainly not an expert in the world of finance, so correct me in the comment section, but this divestment is like pulling an investment from a company that you had previously funded. Creative originally invested $1.6 million, so the net gain is $4.5 million over time, a very smart investment. Qala needs not fear, however, as they were just bought by MobileOne, a major Singapore cell carrier for $10.3 million US. Clearly, this is meant to clear funding for the Zii launch.

Speaking of the Zii launch, Sim also dropped a link to the recently updated ZiiLABS.com events page, which shows when and where ZiiLABS will be demonstrating products over the next couple of months. Here they are:

IBC 2009

Amsterdam
11th – 15th September 2009

Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2010)

Las Vegas
7th – 10th January, 2010

World Mobile Congress (Mobile World Congress, misnamed by ZiiLABS)

Barcelona, Spain
15th – 18th, February 2010

I’ll be putting my money, if I had any, on CES as the big announcement, as this is a Creative tradition to announce stuff a couple of days prior to the convention, then having a media blitz over the convention days. The company has garnered three “CES Best in Show” awards in the last decade, and they sure would enjoy a fourth. It’s almost more interesting to see the MWC announcement- perhaps a mobile carrier partner will be lined up by then?

Our sister site: ZiiEGG.com

DAPreview (DaHarder)

Anything But iPod

Also, Engadget unveiled a roadmap for development on the platform, which you can see in this article.

Additionally, ZiiLABS has announced that they will be using the Wolfson WM8350 audio chip in the device for audio processing. This will work in union with the ZMS-05 processor, which will do almost all of the work except audio processing. It’s an interesting step, but the chip claims to be a very power-efficient one, and could increase battery life for the audio side. Read more about the WM8350 here, and read the ZiiLABS press release below.

Wolfson/ZiiLABS Press Release

Wolfson’s integrated audio and power management solution selected by ZiiLABS

Faster time-to-market for media-rich, low power portable designs

Edinburgh, UK – 25 August 2009 – : Wolfson Microelectronics plc (LSE: WLF.L) announces that applications processor vendor ZiiLABS has selected the WM8350 Stereo CODEC with Integrated Power Management for inclusion on both its ZMS-05 System Module for embedded devices and its Zii EGG StemCell Computer, the first market-ready handheld Plaszma platform.

The WM8350 is one of Wolfson’s successful family of power management solutions, which are compatible with leading multimedia application processors. It features an integrated high fidelity audio CODEC and power management subsystem that delivers high performance audio and extended battery life at a reduced system cost. Coupled with ZiiLABS’ media-rich processor technology, the WM8350 enables the creation of new and exciting high performance designs, whilst significantly reducing power consumption, system cost, design challenges, manufacturing complexity and time-to-market. In the case of the WM8350, the savings can be up to 25 percent on the device bill of materials (BOM) and up to 50 percent on the board footprint.

“Wolfson is delighted to be working with ZiiLABS. The WM8350 provides a highly integrated solution without compromising on audio performance, a perfect fit for their platforms and processors”, comments Jess Brown, power management product line manager at Wolfson. “Successful portable consumer electronics products are increasingly differentiated through enhanced, high performance multimedia user experiences, in ever smaller sizes with longer battery life. Working with Wolfson offers processor vendors such as ZiiLABS the ideal companion technology and an innovative product architecture optimised to help the designer meet these demands.”

The ZMS-05 is a fully programmable, media-rich applications processor capable of delivering high-performance HD video, 2D/3D graphics and multimedia capabilities within a low-power environment. The ZMS-05 System Module, incorporating the ZMS-05 and WM8350, comes in a production-ready SODIMM form factor simplifying customer base board developments. Based on the ZMS-05, the Zii EGG handheld StemCell Computer, offers an energy efficient handheld platform featuring a multi touch display, GPS, forward and rear facing cameras, Bluetooth, HDMI, full size SD card slot, 256MB RAM, 16/32GB Flash Memory and Wi-Fi.

“We have chosen the WM8350 because of Wolfson’s world-class expertise in audio and power management mixed-signal design. Wolfson has provided excellent application support throughout the project, something that has been an essential component in our decision to work with them”, comments Tim Lewis, Marketing Director at ZiiLABS. “The WM8350 and ZMS-05 processor form a powerful combination that will help designers differentiate their products with media-rich applications at the lowest possible power consumption. Both the WM8350 and ZiiLABS’ ZMS-05 are highly integrated devices that help shorten system design times and reduce the requirement for additional components, whilst delivering a superb, non-compromised multimedia experience.”

The WM8350 functions include a high performance, low power audio CODEC with advanced mixing capability that delivers excellent 98dB SNR performance. The device also features on-chip clock generation, six DC-DC converters, four LDO voltage regulators, a lithium battery charger, two white LED drivers and an auxiliary analogue to digital converter (ADC), all inside a compact 7×7mm BGA package.

About Wolfson Microelectronics

Wolfson Microelectronics plc is a leading global provider of high performance, mixed-signal semiconductors to the consumer electronics market.

Wolfson is known for its high performance audio and ultra low power consumption, its devices are at the heart of many high profile consumer electronics products, including mobile phones, mp3 players, flat panel TVs and in-car infotainment systems. Wolfson technology enables exciting new end-user experiences by connecting the digital world to the human senses.

Headquartered in Edinburgh, UK, Wolfson has sales and engineering offices in the USA, Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and India.

Wolfson Microelectronics plc is listed on the London stock exchange (LSE: WLF.L).

For more information about Wolfson Microelectronics, please visit: www.wolfsonmicro.com or sign up for Wolfson eNews at: www.wolfsonmicro.com/enews

About ZiiLABS

ZiiLABS is a worldwide leader in low-power, media-rich application processors, hardware platforms and advanced middleware that enable OEMs, ODMs, System Integrators and Software Developers to deliver best-in-class products across a broad range of consumer electronics and embedded markets. Originally founded in 1994 as 3DLABS, the company re-branded and joined with the Personal Digital Entertainment group of Creative Technology to form ZiiLABS in January 2009. ZiiLABs now has over 800 R&D engineers working on ZiiLABS related projects and has invested US$1 billion and 10,000 man years in media processing solutions. The company has offices in the UK, China, USA and Singapore.

• Despite the various differences around the web with regards to capitalization and spelling, the official product name is the Zii EGG – with the entire EGG part capitalized.
• The HD cable is not included with the SDK package- and the box contents over at ZiiLABS is much clearer. The device box will include the following: the Zii EGG, earphones, a USB cable, the wall charger, and a warranty card.
• The 32GB included in the SDK promotion is embedded in the device. This is not the 0GB device that ZiiLABS offers to OEMs so they can add 32GB of storage via SDHC.
• The device is of matte plastic material. A comparison shot can be seen here on a fake iPhone.
• Currently the only shipping countries are those listed. No mention of you poor Australian people who want the device.
• No new information on the battery life. The focus at this point is on developers and thus there is no stable benchmark for battery life.
• The SDK contains all the tools, libraries and example applications to get developers started. It will be officially supported under Ubuntu 8.04 using the Eclipse program. This is great because people who are on any system now can (for free) install Ubuntu as a secondary OS to program in without messing up the Windows/Mac system. And if you’re already in Ubuntu, then you know how to manage your OS properly and probably already know a decent amount of programming.

On another note, I’ll be launching an app store over at ZiiEGG.com soon- please post in the forums links to free Android programs so that I can begin building the collection!

Of note, the manual was written in March 2009- five months ago! The new Creative seems to have a top-notch secrecy plan in place. The only leak seems to be the bezel, which was mistaken for an iPod one (Caution: Apple fans may bite). The timeline is right- at the end of May, there would have been a good likelihood that a bezel was being sent for manufacturing with a target release at the end of August. Why is a consumer model confirmed? Because the follwing was found in the manual:

There are a few other notables in the manual. One of these is the way the cable output will work. It seems there will be one cable that will output to Component and one that will output to HDMI. Both of these cable appear to have an additional connection to the Zii Universal Adapter, which will allow for simultaneous charging while in playback mode. This is not clarified or confirmed at all, but it seems that you can stream content from your PC through the Zii to HDMI- perhaps a suitable solution for a movie? It’s not confirmed, and it just could be a way to charge while in playback mode, so don’t assume anything.

Something that the ZMS-05 has no doubt enabled is the ability to multitask. While it’s unclear above, the Zii Dock will definitely allow connections to the TV, speakers, and computers simultaneously.

Also of note, the hardware camera button allows doubletap- meaning you can have the camera focus and prepare the shot before you actually take it. This is something (as far as I know) that is not on the Touch. It’s a nifty feature that I use on my cameras almost all the time. It’s frusturating to use the camera on my BlackJack because it doesn’t have this and the shutter delay.

That’s about all that’s in the user manual. It’s certainly not a full fledged announcement on the capabilities of the device, but five months ago, this was where it was at. In five months, there’s no doubt that Creative and ZiiLABS have been adding features and refining the Plaszma OS. I can’t wait for the final release!

More news: epiZENter.

Zii Internal Photographs (FCC) (194)

Opera inside Zii EGG: Opera Devices selected by ZiiLABS to power its latest platform

OSLO, NORWAY – August 4th 2009- Opera Devices SDK 9.7 has been selected by ZiiLABS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd., to bring full Web browsing and a Web application environment to its new developer platform, the handheld Zii EGG StemCell Computer.

Currently, a fully integrated version of the Opera browser is offered by ZiiLABS for Devices on their ZMS-05 applications processor. The Zii EGG is the first device to use the ZMS-05 chipset complete with the company’s freshly launched Linux-based Plaszma operating system.
The Zii EGG provides developers with a compelling platform upon which to develop new and unique Web applications. Opera delivers the necessary Web tools to create useful content and services including news feeds, Web mail, weather updates, social networking and other advanced Web applications. In this “developer edition”, the Zii EGG helps developers, system integrators and OEMS to create powerful new solutions for the mass market.
“We are excited to introduce our mutual customers to the power of Opera running on the Zii EGG StemCell Computer, based on ZMS-05. Opera has made it a priority to work closely with silicon vendors in order to create winning solutions that not only exceed customer expectations, but help them get their devices to the masses even faster,”said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. “ZiiLABS shares Opera’s vision of delivering valuable solutions that will reduce time-to-market and make a positive impact on the device ecosystem.”
“By including Opera on the Zii EGG, we are providing customers with yet another way to get Web browsing and advanced Web applications on the market even faster,”said Lee Teck Chee, Chief Software Officer, ZiiLABS. “We chose to pre-integrate Opera on our ZMS-05 chipsets so that end customers could have a fully integrated and optimized solution that frees them from spending numerous engineering hours on incorporating new features and essential plug-ins.”

Opera for ZMS-05
With Opera preinstalled with the ZMS-05 chipset, ZiiLABS is able to offer a pre-optimized solution that is flexible and market-ready. Opera technology, including Opera Zoom, touchscreen optimization, and a Web View Engine for Web application development, are pre-integrated. This makes it easier for manufacturers, system integrators and software developers to deliver best-in-breed products to the mass market quickly and easily. Together, Opera and ZiiLABS are delivering a tried-and-tested solution that eases the development process and speeds up time-to-market.

About ZiiLABS
ZiiLABS is a leader in low-power, media-rich application processors, hardware platforms and advanced middleware that enable OEMs, ODMs, System Integrators and Software Developers to deliver best-in-class products across a broad range of consumer electronics and embedded markets.
Originally founded in 1994 as 3DLABS, the company re-branded and joined with the Personal Digital Entertainment group of Creative Technology to form ZiiLABS in January 2009. ZiiLABS with over 800 R&D engineers today has invested US$1billion and 10,000 man-years in media processing solutions and has offices in the UK, China and Singapore. Learn more about ZiiLABS at: www.ZiiLABS.com

About Opera Software ASA
Opera Software ASA has redefined Web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera’s cross-platform Web browser technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at: www.opera.com

Zii.com- Press Release