Toshiba Showcases Latest Advanced Technologies at CES 2008

LAS VEGAS & TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Toshiba Corporation today announced the diverse line-up of advanced technologies and systems that the company will bring to the Consumer Electronics Show, CES 2008, in Las Vegas from January 7 to 10. At CES, Toshiba will look toward tomorrow, and demonstrate the total commitment to innovation and excellence in digital products that it brings to realizing Digital Life Innovation for consumers, the main theme of the company’s CES 2008 showcase. (Toshiba booth: Central Hall #12814)

Digital Life Innovation

Digital Life Innovation will take the consumer experience of digital technology to new heights, a level where advances in digital equipment create new products, shape new services and offer new lifestyle experiences. At CES, Toshiba will introduce the latest advances in technologies and systems that realize Digital Life Innovation, and do so with the wizardry of New York based magician Marco Tempest, who will introduce Toshiba’s latest technologies on the presentation stage.

Major Exhibits of New Technologies

AV Notebook PC “Qosmio” with “SpursEngine”

“Qosmio” has led the way in bringing advanced entertainment capabilities to AV notebook PCs, and visitors to CES will see for themselves how a new Qosmio concept model points to future services and capabilities. The Qosmio integrates Toshiba’s new “SpursEngine,” a co-processor derived from the high-performance Cell Broadband Engine™ ^1,2 (Cell/B.E.) processor and Toshiba’s advanced image processing technology, and bring awesome levels of processing power to consumer electronics.

Attention-grabbing demonstrations at CES will include followings:

Real-time face morphing

Real-time transformations of hair styles and makeup that instantaneously recognize and process changes in position, angle, and facial expression captured by an integrated camera, and render them as computer graphics

Hand gesture

Remote-controller-free, hand gesture control of video, where simply moving the hand can control, for example, playback or pause

Video indexing

Once a face appears on screen, it is recognized and stored in an easily searched index that allows viewers to find and playback video segments featuring a specific person.

Super-resolution

Image super-resolution creates high definition (HD) video from standard definition (SD) video, for instance video library recorded so far, by enhancing pixel resolution.

High-speed video editing and transcoding

SpursEngine’s high-speed transcoding from MPEG2 to H.264 achieves faster editing and recording of HD video to HD DVD discs.

TV with Cell Broadband Engine™ (Cell/B.E.)

TVs empowered with the high performance Cell/B.E. multi-core processor offer new dimensions in visual entertainment. Technology demonstrations at CES will feature real-time image super-resolution that transforms SD images into HD, and multi-decoding, the simultaneous playback of multiple videos that can bring up to 48 moving images to the screen.

Ultra Mobile Technology

Toshiba enjoys world-class technological advantages in mobile applications in such essential areas as high density mounting, curved surface printed antennas for miniaturization, the user interface for small devices, and storage devices. In mobile storage solutions, Toshiba's comprehensive capabilities extend to hard disk drives (HDD), solid state drives (SSD) and SD cards. All these capabilities will be demonstrated in a concept model of an ultra mobile PC. Toshiba’s new user interface, “eMotion Feel^™,” realizes simple, intuitive operation, such as the “flickcursor” on-screen touchpad, scrolling by tilting the device, and zoom-in and out by pressing the screen.

Solid State Drives (SSD)

Toshiba’s first solid state drive delivers 128GB density in a 1.8-inch form factor, thanks to the company’s industry-leading capabilities in multilevel-cell (MLC) NAND flash memories. By integrating an original MLC controller, the new line-up of SSD achieve performance levels comparable to those of single-level NAND flash SSD; for instance, maximum read and write speeds of 100MB a second and 40MB a second, respectively. At CES, 64GB and 128GB SSD will be showcased in a range of form factors.

Next Generation REGZA LINK (HDMI-CEC)

The current REGZA LINK (HDMI-CEC) offers simple operation of multiple digital products connecting by HDMI cables; for example a TV, HD DVD player and PC can all be operated by one TV remote controller, and any content stored in a connected PC can be listed, selected and played back on a TV. The next generation achieves all this, but without wires. Toshiba will demonstrate REGZA LINK (HDMI-CEC) based on WirelessHD^{™
3} technology. WirelessHD^™ standardized by the WirelessHD™ consortium realizes wireless transmission of uncompressed HD video and audio data at speeds as high as 4Gbps in the millimeter waveband, almost without delay, allowing total freedom when positioning devices in a room. Toshiba is a promoter company of the WirelessHD^™ consortium.

Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) for Mobile Devices

Toshiba’s global leadership in fuel cells is embodied in the reference model of a direct methanol fuel cell integrated into one of Toshiba’s gigabeat portable media players. The DMFC runs on a methanol-oxygen fuel mix, and generates and supplies power directly to the device. The prototype DMFC can run video on the gigabeat for as long as ten hours on a single fuel charge, and can be refueled on the go for unlimited device operation.

Toshiba and the Environment

In an age of increasing environmental concerns, Toshiba will present "Environment Vision 2050," the company's long-term commitment to promoting the highest environmental standards, embodying its determination to contribute to a better environment in the years to 2050. Displays will include examples of improved eco-efficiency in products and business processes, based on Toshiba's demanding eco-efficiency factor, feature the largest line-up of PCs rated as Gold by the U.S. Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), and spotlight Toshiba's participation in the US EPA's "plug-in to eCycling" programs.

Toshiba’s major presence at CES will also include various HD DVD products including HD DVD players and drives, HDTVs, PCs and other digital products.

Toshiba’s HD DVD products will also be featured at HD DVD Promotional Group’s booth (South Hall 1, #21266).

¹ Cell Broadband Engine™ is a high-performance processor jointly developed by IBM, Sony Group and Toshiba. Its breakthrough multi-core architecture brings previously unseen broadband processing power to digital products, on the strength of super high-speed data transfer capabilities.

² Cell Broadband Engine is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

³ WirelessHD is a trademark licensed by WirelessHD LLC.