Symbolics Inc is looking to the emerging high-definition television market for its next fortune and has come out with two products that it claims could cut years from new product development cycles for scores of international company’s banking on the future of high-definition television technology. The Burlington, Massachusetts company claims that its FrameThrower is the industry’s first commercially available high-definition videographics processor, and has incorporated the chip into a workstation. The FrameThrower is designed to merge computer and high resolution video graphics to enable the development of workable systems for applications ranging from medical imaging to remote diagnosis. It features a programmable architecture configurable in real-time – enabling real-time merging of computer graphics and high-definition video. Based on the VMEbus standard, it is designed to provide system integrators with a building block for delivering custom television applications on a variety of workstations. First version of the FrameThrower processor is the FT100, and it goes into the company’s XL400 symbolic processing workstation – successor to the 3600 series to create the High-Definition ColorStation. The FT100 processor add-in board and base-level software library is $23,900 and the workstation with FT100, a high-resolution monochrome monitor and the colour graphics software library is $58,800; they ship in June and will be avaialble for a special offer $18,900 and $53,800 if you order by September 30. The company also said that it is in active discussion with major electronics and computer manufacturers on development of custom FrameThrower products as an OEM supplier.
