SAN JOSE, Calif. – December 3, 2001 -- Initio Corporation, a leading maker of input/output (I/O) solutions for computers and peripherals, today announced an alliance with NEC Corporation and its semiconductor affiliate in the United States, NEC Electronics Inc., to co-develop IEEE 1394 ("FireWire") technology. The companies will blend their considerable input/output (I/O) and IEEE 1394 expertise to create advanced IEEE 1394 integrated circuits to be introduced in early 2002. These highly integrated controllers for the computing and communications industries are designed to address the growing need for storage in these areas.

NEC brings its leading engineering and intellectual property resources, while Initio lends its years of input/output expertise. This alliance is expected to result in IEEE 1394 storage control devices, including a 1394-to-UDMA100 solution to be introduced in January 2002. The fully integrated, single-chip controller will feature NEC's versatile, low-power IEEE 1394 PHY technology.

"Initio and NEC bring to this market their significant expertise in the storage industry in general and IEEE 1394 in particular," said Eric Wilson, director of business development at Initio. This collaboration builds on each company's success in those areas and will provide our customers with one of the most advanced storage devices for their wide range of IEEE 1394 applications. "NEC's several years of development success matches well with Initio's extensive experience in storage and IEEE 1394 technology," said John Barber, NEC Electronics product marketing engineer and member of the 1394 Trade Association board of directors. This combined expertise should provide Initio and NEC customers with unprecedented performance, integration and ease of design for their storage products. "We're pleased to join forces with a company so well regarded in the computing and electronics industry as NEC," said Kenneth Wu, president of Initio. We believe both companies and their customers will realize the benefits of combining our design strengths into powerful storage control solutions. Initio already is well-established in the IEEE 1394 arena.

The company provides IEEE 1394 link-layer devices to manufacturers of storage products. The devices enable data rates in excess of 400 megabytes per second (MB/s), allowing manufacturers to design advanced peripherals -- disk, tape, CD-recordable/rewritable and DVD drives -- with unprecedented speed and connectivity. The INIC-1420 link controller provides an ideal interconnection between drive designs and the IEEE 1394 interface, allowing peripherals to communicate directly with each other without burdening the host unit. Additionally, the link controller permits scalable networks supporting multiple speeds and enables true plug-and-play solutions.

Initio recently acquired the IEEE 1394 product line of privately held ConnectCom Solutions, Inc. (formerly AdvanSys Corp.).& With that acquisition, Initio expanded its IEEE 1394 business through a significantly broader product line and customer base.

About Initio Corp.
Initio Corp. (www.initio.com) is a privately held maker of input/output solutions for the information-technology industry. Founded in 1994, Initio is based in San Jose, Calif.

Initio is a trademark of Initio Corporation, which may be registered in some jurisdictions. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

Editorial contact:
Jerry Steach
CommonGround Communications (for Initio Corp.)
jsteach@pacbell.net

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