Agfa Licenses UFST 4.0i to VLSI for Set-Top Box IC Products; Agfa's Scalable Font Subsystem Delivers High-Quality Text to the Wireless Marketplace.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 3, 1998--Agfa Typographic Systems announced today that VLSI Technology, Inc., a leading supplier of custom and standard product ICs for digital TV consumer applications, selected Agfa's Universal Font Scaling Technology(R) (UFST 4.0i) to integrate into VLSI's forthcoming ViSTA `99(tm) product platform. Agfa's high-quality font subsystem will be used to enhance the quality of ViSTA `99 linegraphic user interface displays.

"Graphic displays and user interfaces are a key factor in establishing differentiation among set-top boxes and other digital TV consumer products," said David Tahmassebi, Director of Marketing for VLSI's Consumer Digital Entertainment Division. "VLSI selected Agfa because of Agfa's reputation in the industry for superior typeface designs and font technology. Agfa's scalable font solutions provide the value that manufacturers and consumers of digital set-top boxes demand."

Agfa Licenses UFST 4.0i to VLSI

"Agfa is delighted that VLSI has selected UFST 4.0i as their text solution," said Robert Givens, Vice President of Agfa's Typographic Systems. "With the remarkable expansion of electronic communications, the importance of high-quality text is now at the forefront of system development. Agfa provides VLSI partners with a flexible, competitive edge that will help them succeed in this marketplace."

UFST 4.0i is a highly efficient and portable ANSI C-based text-rendering engine. It has been ported to leading platforms and compilers, including 68xxx, Intel X86, PowerPC, MIPS, ARM and many others. Agfa UFST 4.0i enhances the readability of text on low-resolution displays by providing an on-the-fly, antialiased grayscale, scalable text solution for displays, screens and monitors. UFST 4.0i special effects include back shadow, drop shadow, emboldening, oblique, outline, rotation, stenciling, strike-through, transparency, underline and variable aspect ratio for height and width.

UFST 4.0i is available with Agfa's Screen Font collection. This turnkey solution provides high-quality display text with reduced memory requirements. The Agfa Screen Font collection is available in Serif and San Serif designs, and includes proportional and monospaced font and icon collections. Character designs in the Agfa Screen Font collection have been enhanced to minimize contrast and enhance readability. The collection of 12 specially designed fonts and UFST 4.0i require just 80KB of memory, versus the 700KB normally required for 12 TrueType fonts.

VLSI ViSTA Digital TV Design Solutions

VLSI's ViSTA product families offer complete hardware and software development solutions that target consumer, digital-video product applications. ViSTA standard products can be integrated into consumer end-products as-is or be customized to help customers differentiate their products in the marketplace. In addition to IC products, the ViSTA `98 platform also offers the Horizon(tm) application prototyping-development board and application software development tools.

VLSI digital-TV silicon products have achieved significant market share in set-top box and video subsystem products supporting satellite-, cable-, terrestrial-borne digital TV services in the US, Europe and Pacific Rim.

VLSI Technology

VLSI Technology, Inc. designs and manufactures custom and semi-custom integrated circuits for leading firms in the wireless communications, networking, consumer digital entertainment and computing markets. VLSI's value proposition is based on full-service customer support, deep libraries of vertical market-focused IC intellectual property, unparalleled custom circuit design expertise enabled through the Velocity(tm)Rapid Silicon Prototyping design style, and one of the world's most flexible and efficient custom circuit manufacturing facilities. The company is based in San Jose, with 1997 revenues from continuing operations of $712.7 million, and approximately 2,200 employees worldwide. Visit VLSI's homepage at http://www.vlsi.com.

Agfa Division

Agfa Typographic Systems is the recognized leader of embedded type and color technologies, multi-language and double-byte font solutions, high-quality custom type design and owner of the largest digital type library in the world. Agfa Typographic Systems is a business unit of the Agfa-Gevaert Group, a leading worldwide manufacturer of imaging products and systems, with annual sales of $4.5 billion. Headquartered in Mortsel, Belgium, Agfa-Gevaert is wholly owned by Bayer AG. In the United States, Agfa operates as a division of Bayer Corporation, with headquarters in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey. Bayer, headquartered in Pittsburgh, is a research-based company with major businesses in chemicals, health care and imaging technologies. Bayer employs 23,500 people. Additional information on Agfa Typographic Systems may be found on the company's home page at: http://www.agfahome.com/agfatype.

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Horizon, Velocity, ViSTA, ViSTA '98 and ViSTA '99 are trademarks of VLSI Technology, Inc.