Company Overview

Mizar, Inc. specializes in the development and marketing of multiprocessor digital signal processing (DSP) computing subsystems used primarily for real-time image and signal processing. Our products are embedded in complete systems developed by our customers.

Mizar was founded in 1982 and was one of the early developers of VME single board computers, primarily marketed to customers involved in real-time process control applications including companies such as Applied Materials, Inc., MTS Systems Corporation, Glenayre Manufacturing, Ltd., and Pressco Check back often for the latest event listings in your area.Technology, Inc.

In 1992 Mizar entered into the first of several licensing agreements with the Defense Systems and Electronics Group of Texas Instruments Incorporated relating to DSP single board computers. From this beginning, we have developed a wide range of products based on TI's highly successful C40 and C80 families of programmable digital signal processors (DSPs). In September, 1995 Mizar successfully completed an initial public offering (IPO) of its stock through the securities firm of John G. Kinnard and Company, located in Minneapolis, MN. The Company's headquarters is in Carrollton, TX, a suburb of Dallas-Ft. Worth. In addition, the company maintains several sales offices in the U.S. and Europe.

Technology: DSP Solutions

In just four years Mizar has established itself as a leader in the design of multiprocessor digital signal processing (DSP) computing subsystems. Our products are used in a variety of demanding real-time imaging and signal processing applications including radar, sonar, infrared, and machine vision. DSP computing allows the cost-effective application of powerful math algorithms in a variety of image and signal recognition areas. Typically, a DSP computer performs application specific processing of an image or signal in real time. For instance, DSP computing is used in sophisticated submarine detection sonar to identify hostile submarines. In machine vision, DSP computing may be used to recognize defects in a manufactured product, check alignment, or accurately place components. The strong demand for DSP-based image and signal processing has led to a 41% compounded annual growth rate in Mizar's DSP product revenues since 1994.

Mizar has chosen to design its products around programmable DSP microprocessors developed by Texas Instruments Incorporated, the acknowledged market share leader in programmable DSPs. We offer a spectrum of open-systems products which, in highly integrated systems, can be configured to deliver multiple gigaflops (billions of floating point operations per second) of computing power. One machine vision customer is using Mizar's Octal DSP engine which delivers approximately 400 megaflops. To put this in perspective, this single DSP engine, which measures 6" by 8' in an open-systems architecture, supplies more computing power than two early 1980s vintage supercomputers, at less than 1% of the cost, thereby facilitating the application of extremely powerful computing tools to a typical factory application.

In addition to pure performance capabilities, Mizar offers many COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) build options that address applications which reside in both benign and harsh environmental conditions.

Company Success

1996 revenues reached $14.1 million, a record year for Mizar. More importantly, our DSP products reached revenues of $8.7 million, also a record. You will recall that we entered this market only in 1993; hence progress has been very satisfying. Net income was also a record at $3.3 million. Due to both our IPO and positive cash flow from operations, we ended the year with a solid balance sheet and a strong cash position of over $2 per share.

The Future

Mizar has two areas of interest in the future. We intend to continue to be a market and product leader in the area of high performance, multiprocessor DSP computing engines. This suggests continuing product development in both hardware and software, with the latter potentially becoming increasingly important. The second area of a long-term interest is in the area of real-time image processing. In the coming years, computers will be increasingly used to look at complex "images", extract information from those images, and make decisions based on that information. DSP will play a role in this area, but other technologies will also be employed.