Trumpion Teams Up With Micronas For eUstickMP3 Reference Design (0319)

New USB Flash Disk Featuring Integrated MP3 Functionality

Freiburg, Germany/Taipei, Taiwan -August 14, 2003-Trumpion and Micronas are pleased to announce the eUstickMP3 reference design, an evolutionary new removable USB flash disk. Featuring Trumpion's widely manufactured t3552 USB-to-SmartMedia/MemoryStick controller alongside Micronas' MAS 3507D audio decoder, the eUstickMP3 reference design is described as a cost-competitive total solution aiming at upgrading entry-level removable USB 1.1 flash disks by integrating basic MP3 functions. In MP3 player mode, eUstickMP3 supports the basic functions of an MP3 player, operated through a simple user interface for keying inputs. Control functions include power on/off, play, pause, next/previous song, volume and repeat.

"This is a prime example of common sense convergence," said Jensen Cheng , Trumpion's product planning director. "As consumers continue to demand more functionality from everything electronic, bringing together two technologies from growing markets is not just common sense, it's good business sense and we expect a lot of interest in this product."

Maintaining the same software interface as Trumpion's well-received eUstick equipped with the t3551, the eUstickMP3 supports the removable disk driver for Windows 98/98SE and driver-less for Windows 2000, ME, and XP. It also works with the Mac operating system and Linux OS. Furthermore, it is bundled with additional sophisticated PC software designed primarily for user security functions, such as security and public disk formatting, password function, dynamic partition for security and public disk formatting, PC lock, write protect, multiple language support for dialog menus and short-cut function. It supports all NAND-type flash memories ranging from 16MB to 256MB. eUstickMP3 is working with one single AAA size battery.

"This collaboration is a result of our ongoing commitment to the converging MP3 market," commented Shawn Richards, Micronas' director marketing multimedia. "As a pioneer of the MP3 technology we are now starting to capitalize on our expertise. We believe that the market will adopt MP3 at a greater rate when it is packaged with complimentary applications and we expect to reap the benefit of that through our ongoing collaboration with Trumpion."

Jensen Cheng added, "In the future we expect additional USB product launches incorporating Trumpion and Micronas products combining our relevant expertise storage access with multimedia applications."

The Micronas MAS 3507D is a single-chip MPEG-1/2 layer 2/3 audio decoder for use in audio broadcast or memory-based playback applications. Due to embedded memories, the embedded DC/DC up-converter and the very low power consumption, the MAS 3507D is ideally suited for portable electronic devices. Heart of the MAS 3507D is a high-performance RISC DSP with a memory word length of 20 Bit. The instruction set of the DSP is highly optimised for audio data compression and decompression.

The eUstickMP3 reference design is available now with demo boards and information package of bundled software, driver, manufacturing tool, reference schematics, PCB layout files, specification, and other documentations.
 

About Trumpion

Trumpion Microelectronics is a renowned IC design company, providing professional IC system solutions in the development of display control IC for CRT/LCD Monitor/LCD-TV/PDP/Projector and multimedia storage access MCU in consumer, PC related fields. Founded in 1998 and located in Taipei, Trumpion has won several design-wins with worldwide leading companies, such as Samsung, Sony, ViewSonic etc, for its robust IC development methodology and experienced management team. For more information please email ic4u@trumpion.com.tw or visit www.trumpion.com.tw.