Xionics Inc has enhanced its XipPrint Network Image Print Accelerator board in a bid to attract new users for its range of imaging technology. The Plug & Play board, which can be used on any Hewlett-Packard Co LaserJet printer, can now print computer facsimile messages, graphics from any Windows application, overlay text on images and connect to Token Ring and TCP/IP networks. Xionics, now based in the US, promises the XipPrint will even print document images of 600 dots per inch at the printer’s full engine speed; and by locating the board in the peripheral, the network traffic is cut by up to twenty-fold. XipPrint does not, however, alter the printing of non-image documents: it searches the data stream and automatically decompresses files in Tag Image File Format, PCX and DCX. Xionics is marketing XipPrint on the basis of its ability to link a whole network by means of a Plug & Play board into a printer that most companies own, doing away with the need for a dedicated printer, personal computer and software and its independence from the network. The new features are the PCX/DCX file supporter which enables computer faxes to be decompressed and printed; the XipDriver for use with Windows; image and text overlay; and the network communications options. Xionics believes imaging is a growing market and companies other than the traditional users – insurers and financial institutions will want to use it as part of everyday business, rather than an end in itself. Marketing manager Brian Bissett said that it was no longer viewed as a luxury by businesses where office automation saw the convergence of numerous technologies. We’re other businesses taking our products into the mainstream. XipPrint, which is available now, costs ?1,250. Xionics says it is cheaper than buying software for each user and it is faster than software and that regardless of how fast images are processed, most personal computers have a maximum capacity of 30 pages a minute; XipPrint is not constrained in this way. Xionics was formed in the UK in 1978 but last year relocated its headquarters from Slough, Berkshire to Peabody, Massachusetts and became a company incorporated in the US. The move was presaged by two rounds of venture financing totalling $3.5m by Hambro International Equity Partners, used by Xionics to expand and develop products and increase its presence in the US market. Half its business is now in the US, the other internationally with Germany and the UK being particularly strong markets. Its four business areas are network and personal computer image accelerators; software tools to integrate imaging into networks; and silicon design.
