REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 30, 2002--Applied Microsystems Corp., developer of optical disk-based development kits for the game console market as well as embedded software test, debug and verification tools, today announced its new agreement with Marubeni Solution Corp. -- the leading distributor in Japan of Nintendo GameCube(TM) development kits.
Under the new agreement, Marubeni Solution will distribute Applied's optical disk solution, a key highlight of Nintendo GameCube development kits. Commenting on the new agreement, Makoto Sekoguchi, general manager, IT Solution Division, Marubeni Solution Corp., said: ``When the average game title costs $5 million (US) to develop, finding high performance yet cost effective tools is a very important priority for the game developer. Based on the experience Nintendo's customers in America are having with Applied's products, we are confident and pleased to extend this solution to our game developers in Japan.''
With Applied's solutions, it's no longer necessary to burn discs for every minor change that is made, saving developers crucial time, resources and money. Working with debuggers such as SN Systems' ProDG(TM) and MetroWerks' CodeWarrior(TM), Applied's emulation technology delivers the critical visibility and communications channel into both the host and target environment so that game developers can control the quality of their code and data through emulation of their optical disk environment. Using this optical disk emulation technology, developers can compile code while they emulate -- thereby significantly shortening the time game title development typically takes today.
This next generation optical disc emulation technology emulates the physical characteristics of the optical disk drive by adjusting the transfer rate of data coming from the hard drive. Armed with this tool, developers can observe spin up/down, head seek and rotational time, disc cache operation, and the data transfer rate based on the physical location of data on the drive. Applied's optical disk emulation technology allows the developer to inject errors to simulate scratches or bad discs so typical variations caused by these real-life factors can be accurately managed at the development stage.
Applied's Vice President of Sales and Marketing Mark Budzinski said: ``We are grateful to Nintendo Co., Ltd. of Japan for introducing us to Marubeni Solution, their leading distributor in Japan. Applied is looking forward to serving Nintendo's game developers in Japan through this important relationship with Marubeni and committing to them the most cost effective high performance optical disk game development kit available today.''