Scriptel Announces Battery-Powered Cordless Computer Pen and New Single-Chip Controller for its Transparent Digitizers

January 6, 1992 — Scriptel Corporation, which recently signed a long-term agreement to provide pen-based products and technology to Apple Computer, Inc., announced today that it will introduce a cordless stylus and single-chip controller at the 1992 Fall Comdex show.

Working prototypes of the cordless stylus and a new advanced single-chip controller are expected to be available by mid-year and prior to Comdex.

A pioneer manufacturer in the pen-based computer industry, Scriptel holds key U.S. and international patents in digitizer technology.  This technology makes computers as easy to use as pen and paper and is considered essential to the immediate future of the U.S. domestic pen-based computer industry, now underway at NCR, Wang, Grid, Tusk, Pi Systems, Momenta, IBM, Sony, and Samsung, among others.

Apple Computer, Inc., will have access under its license agreement with Scriptel to the new stylus and chip products when introduced in 1992.  Scriptel’s long-term agreement with Apply caps a year in which the Columbus-based company also reached product agreements with NCR, Wang, and SuperScript Corp.  In addition, Scriptel has signed engineering agreements and projects with Phoenix Technologies, Inc., SystemSoft Corporation, and TriTech Microelectronics, Ltd., in the last year.

The cordless stylus is battery powered with a design lifetime of 12 months under normal usage conditions.  It will offer accuracy, noise immunity, and pressure, as well as fine-touch writing characteristics. For OEM customers, these products will provide new data sources about the writing characteristics of the user.  Engineering samples will soon be available.  Scriptel currently offers a corded stylus and discrete implementation.

The new single-chip controller will support both cordless and corded versions of Scriptel’s products.  Packaged in a 68 pin PLCC, with 12-bit resolution, the new chip supports all standard or custom sizes of Scriptel’s transparent digitizers (up to 12″ x 12″ or 30 cm x 30 cm), and requires only four wire interconnects to the transparent digitizer panel.  This chip is being jointly developed by Scriptel and TriTech Microelectronics, Ltd., a Singapore integrated circuit manufacturing company, and the first chip manufacturer to enter into an agreement with Scriptel.  Preliminary specifications can be obtained by contacting Scriptel or TriTech in San Jose, Calif.

“Scriptel is continuing to develop and refine products essential to the pen-based computing industry,” said James France, Scriptel president.  “The development of the cordless stylus and single-chip controller add to the family of products we can make available to companies like Apple, NCR, Wang, and others who see the next big breakthrough in the computer industry coming from a pen-based direction.”

Bob Kable, Scriptel vice president of engineering, said, “Both products offer the pen-based computer designer a feature-rich environment with the flexibility to achieve a wide variety of design objectives using off-the-shelf components.  We believe the enhancements to the ASIC will offer implementation and time-to-market advantages not now available in other pen-input technologies.” Kable added that the Scriptel design supports pen operating systems such as “Pen Point” devleoped by Go Corporation and Microsoft’s “Windows for Pen-Computing.”

Scriptel has developed, manufactures, and holds key patents to computer digitizer technology it believes essential to pen-based computing, and its goal is to make it easily available to customers. Scriptel’s transparent glass digitizer, stylus, and electronic circuitry, which give pen-based computers a unique ability to be used like pen and paper, are considered to be one of the most promising for future design wins by several major companies in terms of technology, manufacturing process, pricing, flexibility, and time-to-market.

Scriptel believes that its digitizer may become the standard domestic digitizer technology for pen-based computing.  Scriptel’s patents in this technology employ a single layer glass-panel writing surface on top of the display which is used to send information to a computer suing a stylus instead of a keyboard.

Earlier this year, NCR Corp. signed a three-year OEM contract for Scriptel digitizer components, and Wang Laboratories, Inc. selected Scriptel to provide digitizers for its Guide Development product, a pen-based portable computer in development.

Founded in 1982, Scriptel’s high-performance transparent digitizers are used in medical, dental, computer graphics, computer-aided-design, and pen-based computer applications.  The company’s products are sold to original equipment manufacturers and value-added resellers.

CONTACT:
James W. France, Jr. of Scriptel, 614-276-8402;
Rao Gobburu of TriTech Microelectronics, 408-894-1900;
or
David Eden of William Silverman and Company, 216-696-7750, for Scriptel