SAN JOSE, Calif.- June 13, 2005--   'MDF(TM)' Enables Full Manipulation of Data While Miniaturized; Leads to Reduced Storage Requirements, Faster Data Access and Increased Mobile Functionality   

WindSpring(TM), Inc., a privately-held software company, today announced the availability of WindSpring Gazelle(TM) and WindSpring Mobile software products that utilize WindSpring's patented Data Miniaturization Technology (DMT(TM)) to transform files into WindSpring's new Micro Data Format (MDF). DMT transforms files and shrinks them into MDF, which in turn enables high-speed data manipulation in the miniaturized state. By reducing file size, end-users can store more data and transmit files faster without the need to increase storage and network capacity or hardware cost. MDF is ideally suited for space-constrained devices such as cell phones, Smartphones and PDAs with internal memory limitations, and Wireless, Mobile and Digital Mapping applications such as GPS navigation and remote computing, where large amounts of data often slow system performance and communications.

"WindSpring's Micro Data Format will change the world of high speed mobile and remote computing by allowing users to store more and send faster," said Robert F. Mitro, CEO of WindSpring. "This new technology is available to consumers and enterprises, and can also be implemented into OEM software, hardware and networking platforms, opening the door to new classes of applications that currently cannot be addressed with existing technologies, especially in storage-constrained environments."

Data Miniaturization Technology and the Micro Data Format

DMT is WindSpring's core, patented technology that enables new and increasingly sophisticated applications to be deployed based on MDF. DMT transforms files and shrinks them into MDF which in turn enables high-speed data manipulation in the miniaturized state without having to expand the data back to its larger native format. Unlike compression, MDF data never needs to be returned to its original larger state for editing, manipulation, display or transfer. This leads to a reduced data footprint, and noticeably faster access, manipulation and transfer of data while in the miniaturized state. Able to be implemented into software, hardware and networking platforms, MDF provides a solution to the growing data challenges of network transmission latency, storage constraints, and network and hardware cost. Overall benefits for OEMs and service providers include increased functionality and mass-market adoption for the next generation of Wireless, Mobile and Digital Mapping applications.

The key benefits of MDF are:

-- Store More: MDF enables storage-constrained devices such as cell phones, Smartphones and PDAs to store increased volumes of application data, without incurring costly storage or network capacity upgrades.

-- Send More: Currently, users are often restricted from sending certain files, such as email attachments, to mobile devices that have throughput or storage constraints. DMT transforms many types of files to MDF, allowing them to be sent efficiently to those devices, thereby enabling user transfer capabilities that do not exist today.

-- Send Faster: The smaller size of MDF data enables high speed seek, search, edit, display and transmission of data, thereby reducing network and data access latency, and decreasing time-to-data and increasing transmission speed.

WindSpring Gazelle and Mobile Products

WindSpring Gazelle is a scalable, high-performance software implementation of DMT that transforms data into MDF files for fast end-to-end delivery of mobile navigation, remote computing and enterprise digital mapping content. WindSpring Gazelle is currently available to OEMs, application developers, wireless carriers and service providers for the Windows(R), Linux(R), BREW(R) and PocketPC operating environments. When applied to mobile software, hardware or network platforms, it is transparent to end-users.

WindSpring Mobile, a standalone consumer and enterprise IT product, is the first downloadable software implementation of WindSpring's DMT and MDF technology, and is currently available for Pocket PC PDAs. It installs in seconds and works transparently with other software applications, including Microsoft(R) Office and ActiveSync(R), Adobe(R) PDF and Sybase(R) Lite applications. WindSpring Mobile also operates with a range of GPS navigation applications including Microsoft(R) Streets and Trips 2004 and 2005, ESRI(R) ArcPad(R) 6.0.3, Pharos(R) Ostia(R) 7 and applications using Telcontar's(R) Rich Map Format. The software transforms many popular types of conventional data files into loss-less MDF files, allowing users to edit, manipulate and transfer data without having to expand the data back to its larger native format. It is not recommended for 'lossy' files types such as JPEG, or audio and video files.

Availability and Pricing

The WindSpring Gazelle product currently supports the Windows, Linux, BREW and PocketPC environments, and it is available to OEMs, application developers and service providers for traditional royalty and annual maintenance fees that are customer-specific and volume dependent. The fees are inclusive of agreed upon levels of training, and engineering and technical support.

WindSpring Mobile is available for $24.95 as a Pocket PC PDA software download at www.windspring.com.

Industry Analysts Comment on WindSpring

Tim Bajarin, President of Creative Strategies, a leading industry consultant, analyst and futurist

"With their Data Miniaturization Technology and their new Micro Data Format (MDF), WindSpring stakes out a new category for a software-only approach to storing more data, manipulating it in a miniaturized state and transferring it faster. The key difference between this technology and traditional compression is that the data can be used in the transformed MDF state, never needing to be re-enlarged, so vendors, service providers and end-users can take advantage of the small data footprint and improved transfer speed to make more applications available and get more use out of existing platforms, without the cost of pushing the hardware envelope in space constrained devices."

J. Gerry Purdy, Ph.D., Principal Analyst of MobileTrax, a nationally recognized industry authority in mobile computing and wireless data communications

"WindSpring's new software-only technology for boosting data storage, transfer and application speeds adds a key dimension beyond conventional compression. With the capability to fully use the data while the file remains in WindSpring's new miniaturized and transformed Micro Data Format (MDF), vendors and service providers have the potential to offer new applications and services for mobile platforms that previously could not handle them, and users can extend the useful life of existing devices that don't accept add-on storage. As a software-only solution, it permits designers of future space-constrained mobile offerings to think in terms of more and better functionality with less hardware cost."

Neil Strother, Senior Analyst at In-Stat, a leading high-tech market research firm

"Reducing file sizes in cell phones, and other mobile devices, is an important goal. What WindSpring's data miniaturization software does is just that, without the need for decompression. In the mobile world, speed is king. Anyone using mobile email, Web access, mapping, or accessing corporate databases could benefit from much smaller files. And WindSpring's new software offers that capability in a unique way."

About WindSpring

WindSpring is a privately held software company headquartered in San Jose, California. The company is the pioneer of a new, patented WindSpring Micro Data Format (MDF) that reduces the data footprint of large files and uniquely enables the high-speed seek, search, edit and display of application data while stored in a loss-less miniaturized state. WindSpring products for OEMs, enterprises and consumers are ideal for space-constrained devices such as cell phones, smartphones and PDAs with internal memory limitations, and Wireless, Mobile and Digital Mapping applications such as GPS navigation and remote computing, where large amounts of data often slow system performance and communications.

For more information about the company, please see www.windspring.com.

(C) 2005 WindSpring, Inc.

WindSpring(TM), the WindSpring logo, WindSpring Gazelle(TM), MDF(TM), and DMT(TM) are trademarks of WindSpring, Inc. Microsoft(R), Windows(R) and ActiveSync(R) are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Linux(R) is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. BREW(R) is a registered trademark of QUALCOMM Incorporated. Adobe(R) is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. ESRI(R) and ArcPad(R) are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Telcontar(R) is a registered trademark of Telcontar. Sybase(R) is a registered trademark of Sybase, Inc. All other trademarks and product names are the property of their respective owners.
 
Contacts 
Lee Communications (PR for WindSpring)
Jeff Muscatine, 650-320-8308