For Immediate Release

Norcross, GA, August 7, 2000 - MSP Consortium today announced an addendum to its M.100 recommendation that adds support for the TMS320TM DSP Algorithm Standard, a component of eXpressDSP Real-Time Software Technology, from Texas Instruments (TI), the world leader in digital signal processing (DSP) and analog. The Standard is a single, standard set of coding conventions and application programming interfaces (APIs) that allows algorithm creators to "wrap" the algorithm for system-ready use.

M.100 specifies a comprehensive framework for media-processing subsystems. The addition of eXpressDSP support means the system designer using an M.100-compliant streams environment can now take advantage of the increasing number of eXpressDSP compliant algorithms on the market. Commetrex Corporation immediately announced the addition of support for the M.100 addendum in its M.100-compliant OpenMedia product.

"M.100 specifies a vendor-independent algorithm wrapper and a packaging utility that prepares an algorithm package for the M.100 streams," explained Cliff Schornak, CTO, Commetrex. "But TI has been very successful in promoting its TMS320 DSP Algorithm Standard. As a front-rank member of the TI third-party network, Commetrex now has a total of 24 algorithms through TI's eXpressDSP certification program, and many other vendors are following suit. So adding support for eXpressDSP to M.100 and OpenMedia just makes a lot of sense for the user."

"We are pleased that the MSP Consortium has added support for the TMS320 DSP Algorithm Standard by its addition to the M.100 specification," said John Schanzenbach, eXpressDSP platform manager, TI. "TI is a firm believer in standards that reduce cost and time to market and with eXpressDSP at the algorithm level and M.100 at the sub-system level, both of these development goals will be achieved."

The M.100 Specification
The MSP Consortium's M.100 recommendation specifies a media-streams software environment that fully supports media-processing software, sometimes known as algorithms. Media-processing software is usually DSP software, and TI's TMS320 DSP Algorithm Standard specifies how to package DSP software for TI DSPs.

M.100 is a media-processing API that separates media-processing software from the underlying hardware, fostering independent competition and development in two computer-telephony value-adding layers. It allows vendor-independent development of M.100-compliant media-processing software and hardware resources which means that any board vendor can develop and market M.100-compliant hardware products and any media-processing technology vendor can develop and market compliant software products. This leads to a substantial reduction in the investment required to integrate media-processing software onto a common integrating hardware resource. Now, with the addition of support for eXpressDSP-compliant algorithms to M.100, they can be literally "dropped in" to an M.100-compliant system as easily as an algorithm in a native M.100 wrapper.

OpenMedia Software
OpenMedia, winner of Computer Telephony Magazine's coveted CT Expo 2000 Best of Show award, is a board-level software environment that separates media-stream processing from the underlying hardware resources, making media-processing software easier to port than a hardware component. Commetrex licenses OpenMedia to developers of proprietary hardware resources, allowing the vendor to take advantage of conforming media-processing technologies from any vendor. OpenMedia is also available on each member of the Commetrex' MSP Media Gateway product family of media-processing resources and will be available for beta testing mid-August.

The MSP Consortium
The MSP Consortium was founded in the third quarter of 1997 by seven companies to develop and distribute a new computer telephony value-adding interface specification called the Media Stream Processor (MSP). The MSP is defined in the Consortium's M.100 specification of an open environment for media-processing firmware. The Consortium develops and promotes a hardware- and OS-independent computer telephony value-adding interface specification that decouples DSP-based media-processing technologies from underlying hardware resources. It is also creating a new competitive space by finally separating fixed-function "boards", such as "fax board" and "voice boards" into two value-adding layers: the hardware resource with its MSP-compliant software environment and the media-processing software, such as voice processing or the fax modems.

The MSP Consortium's M.100 recommendation is available for download from the Consortium's Web site at www.msp.org.

Commetrex Corporation
Commetrex Corporation, known for its innovations in fax technology, has recently developed the open-communications industry's first platform for system development that supports the industry's two primary standards for open-system environments: the MSP Consortium M.100 software environment for media integration and the ECTF S.100 software environment for application integration. Both products are available with the company's MSP Media Gateway product line featuring the Texas Instruments TMS320C6000 DSP platform. The MSP Media Gateway products support voice, fax, high-speed data, VoIP and FoIP. Commetrex also extends its support of the communications system developer to the media-processing algorithm level, and is an active participant in the Texas Instrument's third-party network. For more information on Commetrex' OpenMedia product, visit www.commetrex.com.

Editors - Product pictures and electronic images are available from the MSP Consortium on request.