NetSilicon's NS9775 Single-Chip Controller Powers New KONICA MINOLTA Desktop Color Laser Printer

Business Wire, Oct 28, 2004

MINNETONKA, Minn. -- - NS9775 enables high-performance tandem color laser printer optimized for cost -

NetSilicon, a division of Digi International (NASDAQ:DGII), today announced that its NS9775 single chip controller is being used by KONICA MINOLTA, the leading global desktop color laser printer company, to power the new magicolor 5430 DL 21 ppm desktop color laser printer. The NS9775's unique features such as its four parallel JBIG decoder channels, color LCD controller, and industry standard interfaces including, 10/100BaseT Ethernet, USB (host or device), IEEE 1284, PCI, and serial ports, allow KONICA MINOLTA to provide the high-performance tandem color laser printer for the lowest overall build cost.

"We selected NetSilicon's NS9775 for its high level of functionality," said Kei Hyodo, General Manager, Konica Minolta Systems Lab. "The NS9775 allowed us to offer a full platform of printer products on a single-chip solution, which helped reduce costs. NetSilicon's world-class technical support also made the design easy and decreased time to market."

The NS9775 is a new family of ARM9-based NET ARM microprocessors designed as high-performance single chip solutions to drive a new generation of lower cost, network connected desktop color laser printers and multi-function printers (MFPs). The microprocessor allows customers to offer a full platform of printer products on a single-chip solution and is available in speed grades of 200MHz, 162MHz and 133MHz. This enables OEMs to build an entire product line around one architecture.

"The NS9775 offers a breakthrough in cost and performance for the rapidly growing color printer and MFP market," said Tim Counihan, vice president of marketing, NetSilicon. "The NS9775 provides the processing performance necessary for high throughput printers and MFPs at a significantly lower overall bill of material cost compared to traditional architectures that use multiple chips. KONICA MINOLTA was able to work closely with us allowing the company to greatly speed time to market."

To help printer and MFP companies speed time to market, the NS9775 is also available with the NetStream 2 Tandem Printer Controller reference design kit. The kit provides a platform to develop printer and MFP controllers using the NS9775. The NetStream 2 reference design kit includes the NET Works(R) development system, an optimized RTOS and controller firmware library, high-performance networking library, a detailed BOM, schematics, documentation and world-class technical support.

About NetSilicon

NetSilicon, a Digi International(R) company, is a leading provider of network-attached processors and device connectivity software. NetSilicon integrates the high performance NET ARM 32-bit microprocessor with NetSilicon's NET Works advance networking software, including development tools, real-time operating system and connectivity software to accelerate customer development of intelligent, networked devices.

For more information, visit Digi's Web site at www.digi.com, or call 877-912-3444.

All brand names and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.