Kofax introduces Adrenaline hardware accelerators for image processing applications; Booth No. 2352

Business Wire, April 15, 1997

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AIIM--April 15, 1997--Kofax Image Products Tuesday announced a new generation of scanner controllers that are able to support ultra high-speed image processing in real time while running the fastest production imaging scanners on the market.

The new Adrenaline family of hardware accelerators support basic scanning speeds of 400 images per minute, and, with up to 1700 MIPS of on-board processing power, are capable of performing scanning, image cleanup, bar code recognition, and automatic form ID at speeds as fast as 250 images per minute.

"Image processing has become a baseline feature of most capture systems in the last couple of years," said Anthony Macciola, Kofax product manager. "Adrenaline finally allows people to take advantage of all this functionality no matter how fast their scanner is." -0-

Basic features of Adrenaline include:

-- PCI-bus design for high-performance with Pentium class PCs.

-- RISC architecture optimized for advanced image processing

algorithms

-- Proprietary convolver ASIC performs image filtering for

improved OCR accuracy

-- Plug-and-play support for instant installation with no jumper

or switch settings required

-- Both SCSI and video interfaces available for widest possible

scanner support -0-

The Adrenaline accelerator boards are currently in final beta testing and will begin shipping this summer. Manufacturer's suggested retail prices start at $1,795.

Four Adrenaline Accelerator Boards

The Adrenaline hardware accelerator product line includes four models. The 850v and 850s models are designed for mid-range applications capable of processing images at a rate of more than 120 images per minute (60 duplex pages per minute). The 1700v and 1700s are high-speed image processing accelerators that operate at a rate of more than 400 images per minute (200 duplex pages per minute). The "v" versions of both models support video scanners while the "s" models support SCSI scanners.

Performance-Enhancement Features

The Adrenaline hardware accelerators implement load-balancing to enhance performance. Load-balancing allows tasks to be loaded dynamically onto either the accelerator board or the host PC, which allows the CPU to operate in parallel with the hardware accelerator and increase overall system performance.

"Point-of-capture" processing increases performance by performing image clean-up, image enhancement and recognition operations as soon as the image is received by the system. It provides several advantages for users, including the immediate rejection or re-scanning of images, reducing the size of the image at the point of capture, and the ability to intelligently route images to appropriate operations directly from the acquisition station.

In addition, point-of-capture processing cuts down on network traffic. Normally, a 50 KB captured image is routed around the network four times to an image clean-up server, a forms server, an OCR server and an optical server. Point-of-capture processing reduces this process by routing the image only once or twice, resulting in a savings of at least 100 KB of network traffic.

Adrenaline Software Engines

The Adrenaline 850 and 1700 boards join the family of Adrenaline software engines that began shipping in March. These engines perform the same scanning and image processing features as the Adrenaline hardware controllers, but are 100% software based and designed for scanners running at 30 pages per minute and below.

About Kofax

Kofax Image Products is a leading provider of document imaging software and hardware for resellers and integrators. Kofax offers three product lines which include Ascent, KIPP, and NetScan. Ascent is a line of production-level component applications featuring the award-winning Ascent Capture for high-performance document capture, and Ascent Storage, an optical storage manager for Windows NT and Novell NetWare networks. The KIPP family includes ImageControls and StorageControls, a sophisticated series of VB-based software development tools, and Adrenaline, a family of hardware accelerators and software engines for application developers and resellers. NetScan, the industry's first network scan server, is a hardware and software product allowing workgroup scanning over a Novell network.

Kofax Image Products corporate headquarters is located at 3 Jenner Street, Irvine, CA, 92618, 714/727-1733; fax 714/727-3144. Web: http://www.kofax.com . -0-

Kofax, NetScan, KIPP, and ImageControls are registered trademarks, Ascent. Ascent Storage, StorageControls, and Ascent Capture are trademarks, and Alliance and The Component Imaging Company are service marks of Kofax Image Products.

CONTACT: Comm Strategies

Kari Garcia, 714/753-9292

Internet: garciak@compuserve.com

or

Kofax Image Products

Brian Finnegan, 714/727-1733

Internet: bfinnega@kofax.com

http://www.kofax.com