Press Release - Black Ice Software Selects Natural MicroSystems

Further Information: Amanda Dresser
Black Ice Software LLC. 561-757-4107
Sales@blackice.com

Black Ice Software Selects Natural MicroSystems’

NaturalFax/AG Platforms

Amherst, NH—May 12th, 1999 --Black Ice Software today announced it supports Natural MicroSystems’ (NASDAQ:NMSS) NaturalFax/AG boards with its Impact FaxÔ line of communications software and fax development tools. The combination of Black Ice Software’s development tools and the NaturalFax/AG platforms allows developers to add high value fax services to existing applications or to develop powerful fax applications including fax server, fax on demand and unified messaging.

Natural MicroSystems recently delivered the NaturalFax/AG2000 and NaturalFax/AG4000 fax boards, setting new standards for scalability and density up to 120 ports on a single board -- offering developers the lowest cost per port PCI platforms for deployment of fax over IP (store and forward) and high volume fax servers. Both NaturalFax platforms offer comprehensive fax capabilities including automatic detection of fax calls, on-the-fly image conversion and bi-directional in a single call and are accessible under the Natural MicroSystems CT Access Ô development environment.

"We’re providing fax developers with industry-leading scalability and cost advantages with the NaturalFax family of PCI products," said Anne Simoneau, product marketing manager, Natural MicroSystems. "With Black Ice on board, developers will be able to simply and cost-effectively bring to market a wide range of fax solutions."

"It is our goal at Black Ice Software to provide products that support the technology leaders in today’s fax and voice board marketplace. We believe that the Natural MicroSystems team has developed a winning product", said Jozsef Nemeth, Managing Director of Black Ice Software.

About Black Ice Development Tools and Impact Fax

Since 1989 Black Ice has developed high quality base technologies that allow developers to concentrate on the high-level abstractions necessary to solve business problems. Toolkits include Monochrome and Color Printer Drivers, Fax C++, Voice C++, Image SDK, TIFF SDK and Text to Speech. These development tools have won many awards including the American Fax Association Best SDK 1997. The Impact FaxÔ suite offers fully scaleable software to accommodate both small office and large enterprise business communication systems. The Impact FaxÔ Server is shipped with three separate client options and a Fax Server API which enables the system integrator to create a custom client interface. The combination of the Impact Fax Server and the Impact Voice Mail Server provides a complete Unified Messaging System under the Microsoft Windows Operating System.

About the NaturalFax/AG Products

The NaturalFax/AG 2000 is a family of eight-port analog boards with up to 200 MIPS of DSP power. The Natural Fax/AG 4000 is a family of T1/E1 boards that can be configured with up to 4,000 MIPS and supports telephony signaling protocols including ISDN and digital channel associated signaling (CAS), switching, IVR voice, fax and IP telephony/IP fax applications.

About Natural MicroSystems

Natural MicroSystems (NASDAQ: NMSS), based in Framingham, Mass., is the technology leader in Open Telecommunications, providing hardware and software technologies and consulting and support services for developers of high-value telecommunications solutions. The Company’s state-of-the-art technology and NaturalEdge Portfolio of Services and Support enable a growing international network of OEMs, VARs, systems integrators and service providers to reduce time to market, leverage development resources, and offer truly global communications products. Natural MicroSystems products are installed in more than 40 countries worldwide.

Founded in 1983, Natural MicroSystems developed the first PC-based telephony product to utilize digital signal processor (DSP) technology and was a leader in the creation of MVIP and H.100, the industry standards for interoperability in PC-based telephony products. The quality processes at Natural MicroSystems have earned ISO 9002 certification. More information on the company is available at http://www.nmss.com.

About Black Ice Software, LLC

Established in 1989, Black Ice Software, Inc. is a privately held software development company based in Amherst, NH. Black Ice provides high-quality toolkits, utilities and enduser applications software for fax, voice and imaging. The company’s SDKs have received many awards and accolades including "Product of the Year" awards from the American Facsimile Association and Computer Telephony Magazine.

Black Ice’s Impact Fax product line was developed in 1997 using the company’s award-winning components. The Impact products include: Network Fax and Voice Mail Servers which integrate seamlessly with MS Exchange, Impact FaxÔ on Demand that includes a Fax From Web feature and an IVR editor to create a custom FOD application, and Impact Fax Pro, a stand alone fax software with multi-port fax broadcast capability.

Black Ice Software and Natural Microsystems will exhibit their new products at the CTI Expo in Washington DC , May 25-26, 1999.


Natural MicroSystems, Open Telecommunications, NaturalFax and NaturalEdge are trademarks of Natural MicroSystems Corp. Alliance Generation is a registered trademark of Natural MicroSystems Corp.