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.

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.

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!

It seems that the way that the device will work is having an “action” area of the screen where the object (music title, album, video) is dragged onto the action tab with the finger. The copy/paste method also seems to be implemented this way- and the ability to copy/paste media files is a first for a Creative device.

One of the cool features that is enabled is tabbed web browsing, something not supported in many mobile browsers at this point, and something that would be easily done with the power of the ZMS-05 processor. While it’s not listed in the details as multi-tabbed browsing, only saying that the image “shows the user interface having draggable web items and action tabs”, the image clearly shows tabbed web browsing.

The official brief reads as follows:

A system and methods for a novel user interface of a touch sensitive screen for pocket device. The user interface contains display items and action tabs. Display items are configured to be draggable if being dragged at substantially horizontal direction; display items are configured to be scrollable if being dragged at substantially vertical direction. Dragging and releasing a draggable item to an action tab causes a specified action or a sequence of actions being applied to the item.

Below are some images that help better describe the exacts of the patent

Here’s an image for copy/paste- I assume that there will be a spiffy logo rather than the word “clipboard” and a box. However, none of this art is real, it’s purely for demonstrative reasons. Thus, it cannot be concluded that the device is landscape.

Here’s the bit for the web. First off, total suckups to the PTO. Secondly, it seems here that the tabs representing pages means tabbed browsing like Firefox, but the text has differently. It’s much cooler to assume that they are multiple tabs. I believe that the power of the ZMS-05 would allow for multitasking, as in running Pandora in one page while browsing in the other, but that’s more of an operating system feature than a patent application disclosure.

While this stuff is certainly cool and leads me to believe we will see all these cool features on the Zii EGG, none of this has been confirmed on the Zii. It is, however, a odds-on favorite to show up, as the division currently producing the Zii (3DLABS is now known as ZiiLABS) was the name on the patent application rather than Creative Technology. What do you think?

Patent Application on the USPTO