TOYOTA INTRODUCES ON-LINE CAD DATA SYSTEM BETWEEN JAPAN AND U.S.

Toyota City―TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION announced today that it has introduced a new on-line CAD data system, linking the company's head office in Toyota City with the Detroit office of Toyota Technical Center, U.S.A., Inc. (TCUSA).

The system, which came on-line in mid-April, relies on leased circuits between Japan and the U.S. and allows immediate access to design data created at Toyota's head office. The company is using its recently marketed CAD/CAM engineering workstation, Caelum, for the new CAD system.

Toyota is currently engaged in building and expanding an information communication network worldwide in order to keep pace with increasing diversification of customer needs and growth in its overseas activities. The system that has just started operations is part of this network.

Alongside this, Toyota has also installed a state-of-the-art facsimile system for transmitting drawings and other graphic materials. In addition to the Detroit office, the system has been introduced at TCUSA's Lexington office. The system can transmit AO size drawings at a precision of 16 dots/mm.

For these systems, Toyota's head office has been linked with Toyota Motor Manufacturing, U.S.A., Inc. (TMM) in Kentucky through existing high-speed digital circuits and a communication satellite, by way of the company's Tokyo office and Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. (TMS) in California. TMM, in turn, is linked with TCUSA's Detroit and Lexington offices through a newly established leased circuit. (See separate sheet for details.)

Similar systems are scheduled to be introduced in other countries in the future to extend the network worldwide.