3DLABS Launches First Handheld Media Processor Capable of High-Definition H.264 Playback.

Array-based architecture delivers breakthrough in video, imaging, audio, 2D/3D processing and 32-bit floating-point compute for the next generation of handheld devices

LONDON -- 3DLABS Inc.:

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3DLABS Inc., Ltd., a fabless semiconductor company, today announces its entry into the handheld media processor market with the launch of the DMS-02. Based on a multi-core architecture including a fully programmable array of floating-point processors, it is the first handheld digital media silicon capable of HD 720p H.264 video playback. The pool of processing elements is equally adept at performing video, image, audio, 2D/3D graphics and signal processing tasks and provides the flexibility to adapt to emerging standards and applications, including software GPS, software defined radio, digital media broadcast and physics processing for game engines.

A full suite of hardware and software development tools, CODECs and APIs, including H.264, MP3, AAC, JPEG and OpenGL ES ensure fast time-to-market for OEMs designing next-generation consumer products across a range of fast growing markets, including; portable digital entertainment, portable navigation, video conferencing, automotive infotainment, video surveillance and high-end mobile handsets.

"Our engineering teams were asked to deliver a breakthrough in handheld media processing and the DMS-02 shows we have achieved just that," said Hock Leow, president of 3DLABS. " The ability to play back a full 720p resolution H.264 video on your HDTV from a portable device consuming less than 1 Watt is an incredible achievement. Combine that with rendering 3D navigation at 30 fps, capturing and encoding H.264 video at D1 and performing 4.8 GFLOPS of compute and you have a real testament to the architecture. We believe this architecture has the ability to scale and address the rich digital media content that consumers are constantly demanding in low powered mobile devices."

The DMS-02 incorporates 24 floating-point processing elements, dual ARM[R] 926EJ cores, multi-level caches, three bi-directional video stream ports, 32 or 64-bit mobile memory for up to 1.6 GBytes/s bandwidth and peripheral interfaces to LCDs, CMOS sensors, IDE disks, USB OTG, Flash memory and Audio DACs. The device is OS independent with the first Software Development Kits supporting embedded Linux 2.6. The DMS-02 is available now for customer evaluation and is priced at $40 in 1K quantities.

The DMS-02 is the first implementation of the 3DLABS DMS architecture, which scales from mobile handsets to broadcast quality set-top systems.

"Entertainment companies, game developers, operators and device makers alike should embrace the DMS-02 for its ability to render HD content on mobile devices while maintaining battery life," said Richard Doherty, research director for The Envisioneering Group. "3DLABS appears to have rolled high performance video, 3D graphics, flexibility and low power into an efficient, highly reconfigurable chip. The complete developer tools will also accelerate the market adoption of this chip."

"With the DMS-02 we are delivering staggering levels of performance, flexibility and competitiveness on an array running at 100 MHz, which is great for low power but also gives us incredible scalability in terms of performance and capabilities as we migrate to different process nodes." said Tim Lewis, sales and marketing director of 3DLABS.

Key Performance Figures

* High-Definition H.264 720p decode

* H.264 D1 encode at 30 fps

* 4.8 GFLOPS

* 19,200 MIPs

* 200M pixels/s, 8M vertices/s

* 1.6 GBytes/s memory bandwidth

Key Features

* A low-power array architecture which is ideally suited to the parallel nature of media processing tasks

* Fully programmable to handle a wide range of tasks with the flexibility to adapt to emerging standards and applications

* Rich set of media processing CODECs, APIs and Libraries including H.264, MPEG2, Microsoft[R] WMA and WMV, MP3, AAC, OpenGL ES and Image capture

* Powerful integer, IEEE 32-bit and 16-bit floating-point processing

* Multi-tasking which enables the array to be switched between multiple tasks to combine the flexibility of a CPU with the compute density of SIMD parallelism

* Dual ARM[R] 9 cores at 200MHz for low-power, industry standard application processing

* Advanced power management; clock and voltage scaling, clock gating and a low power real-time clock

* Interfaces to external peripherals for reduced complexity and system cost

* Rich suite of hardware and software development tools

* GUI Toolkit, high speed media synchronisation and DRM 

About 3DLABS

3DLABS is a pioneering fabless semiconductor supplier of fully programmable media processors that deliver a rich mix of video, imaging, 2D/3D graphics, audio and floating-point capabilities. Based on an array of floating-point processing elements and dual ARM[R] cores the architecture has the performance, flexibility and low power consumption required to target a broad range of devices; portable media players, navigation systems, automotive infotainment, video conference and surveillance, mobile handsets and embedded systems. 3DLABS was originally founded in 1994 and has experience in developing fully programmable visual computing solutions with expertise in complex silicon design, parallel processing, hardware design and software development, including pioneering work on OpenGL 2.0 and OpenGL ES. 3DLABS has design centres based in England, and offices in Milpitas, California and Huntsville, Alabama. 3DLABS is currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd.

3DLABS is a registered trademark of 3DLABS Inc., Ltd. in the United States and/or other countries. All other brand and product names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby recognised as such.

Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements related to growth in potential markets for 3DLABS' products and the ability of its products to address consumer needs. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause Creative's actual results to differ materially. Such risks and uncertainties include: 3DLABS' ability to gain market acceptance for its products with customers in the portable digital entertainment, portable navigation, video conferencing, automotive infotainment, video surveillance, high-end mobile handsets and other markets; 3DLABS' ability to timely develop new products that gain market acceptance and to manage frequent product transitions; and competitive pressures in the marketplace. For further information regarding the risks and uncertainties associated with Creative's business, please refer to its filings with the SEC, including its Form 20-F for fiscal 2006 filed with the SEC. Creative undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in Creative's expectations.