Embedded BIOS Support for Bus Master IDE Announced by Symphony Laboratories
and Phoenix Technologies

ADDED BIOS FUNCTIONALITY ENABLES NEW ENHANCED CONTROLLER FROM SYMPHONY

Santa Clara, CA (June 5, 1995) -- Symphony Laboratories, a maker of core
logic chip sets and I/O products for personal computers, and Phoenix
Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: PTEC), the world's leading supplier of
system-level software for PC manufacturers and an emerging supplier of
consumer-level software, jointly announced today availability of embedded
support for Symphony's bus master integrated drive electronics (IDE)
controller, the SL82C105 Sonatachip, in Phoenix's standard BIOS product
line.

"The Symphony Sonata Bus Master IDE controller meets today's increasing
system performance requirements, particularly in the demanding area of
multimedia applications," said Clay Clatur, vice president of Phoenix
Technologies' Desktop Division. "By embedding support for Symphony's
Sonata into PhoenixBIOS 4.0, we can increase overall system performance
without sacrificing the limited base memory of the PC."

The integration of bus mastering technology increases system performance of
the PC to the end user by increasing data transfer rates and decreasing
local bus bottlenecks. To take advantage of the bus master IDE enhanced
capabilities, an additional device driver is added to the system.
Normally, this requires the system OEM or end user to use drivers in a
configuration file, adding overhead to base memory. Modifying the system
BIOS eliminates this requirement. This enhanced functionality is currently
available in PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 5.

"Integrating support of our Sonata bus master controller into system
firmware is an important step in the evolution of this new enhanced IDE
interface," said John Monti, Director of Marketing for Symphony
Laboratories. "By working with Phoenix, we were able to enhance our
product, integrating technology to enhance PC features and functionality
for the widest range of OEM manufacturers and end users."

The new SL82C105 supports up to four disk drives, new faster data transfer
modes (PIO mode 3,4 and 5 and DMA modes 0,1 and 2), and supports Logical
Block Addressing (LBA), allowing hard drive capacity of up to 8 gigabytes.
The chip also supports the ATA Packet Interface, for support of CD-ROM
devices. The SL82C105 is geared toward high-performance PCI-based systems
running DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT, NetWare, and OS/2.

Symphony Laboratories designs and markets core logic chip sets and 
peripheral ICs for the manufacturers of desktop and notebook personal 
computers, workstations, intelligent terminals, servers, and other 
high-volume computer architectures. Symphony Laboratories is located at
4000 Burton Drive, Santa Clara, CA 95054. Telephone: (408) 986-1701; fax:
(408) 986-1771

Phoenix Technologies Ltd. is the leading supplier of system-level software
to PC manufacturers worldwide, and is an emerging supplier of
Phoenix-brand software to PC users. The company's system-level software
products, such as PhoenixBIOS, NoteBIOS, PhoenixVIEW, MultiKey and PCM+,
allow PC manufacturers to increase product differentiation, reduce product
cycle time to market as well as cut internal engineering costs.
Capitalizing on its unique industry position and resources, Phoenix is
developing an expanding family of software products for consumers such as
Phoenix Eclipse FAX, Phoenix CD Essentials and Phoenix HomeOffice
Environment, that increase personal computer functionality and make PCs
easier to use. Information on all Phoenix Technologies products is
available on the World Wide Web at: http://www.ptltd.com.

 ============================================================
 From the  'New Product News'  Electronic News Service on....
 AOL (Keyword = New Products) & Delphi (GO COMPUTING PRODUCT)
 ============================================================
 This information was processed from data provided by the 
 company or author mentioned. For additional details, please 
 contact them directly at the address/phone number indicated.
 All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
 ============================================================
 All submissions for this service should be addressed to:
 BAKER ENTERPRISES,  20 Ferro Dr,  Sewell, NJ  08080  U.S.A.
 Email: RBakerPC (AOL/Delphi), rbakerpc@delphi.com (Internet)
 ============================================================
