Blue Wave Systems Gains ComStruct Design Win for Racal Recorders' Most Advanced Digital Recorder.

CARROLLTON, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 30, 1999--

Use of FACT(TM) Reduces Development Time and Enables Added

Functionality

Blue Wave Systems' (NASDAQ/NMS: BWSI) ComStruct(TM) family of digital signal processor (DSP) building blocks for communications processing applications has been chosen by Racal Recorders to provide the processing power for its latest and most advanced digital voice recorder. Racal selected Blue Wave's CPCI/6400 DSP hardware platform and FACT(TM) management and control software together with a number of specially written DSP algorithms.

Racal's latest recorder was recently previewed at a European exhibition and is now entering production for initial customer deliveries in the first quarter of 2000. Demand for Blue Wave's CPCI/C6400, running FACT, is expected to exceed 1,000 units per annum once the recorder is in full production.

Richard Dawson, Racal Recorders product manager, commented, "Our strengths lie in digital recording and not in DSP. Therefore it was imperative that we find a solution that would allow us to concentrate on the application itself and not the technology behind it. We knew that Blue Wave Systems had in-depth expertise in DSP and we soon discovered that in ComStruct they had the solution to fulfill all our needs. The FACT software was perfect, and by abstracting the application from the processing hardware, it allowed us to concentrate our resources on what we do best.

"Time to market is crucial. ComStruct's off-the-shelf approach has helped us not only to significantly reduce the amount of time taken to develop the new recorder but also to control costs. The market is demanding more channels, more functionality and more on-line storage, and thanks to Blue Wave we are able to deliver all three."

"Racal Recorders was one of the first companies to take delivery of our FACT software earlier this year", said Brian Lees, director of marketing at Blue Wave Systems. "We are delighted to see that in tandem with the CPCI/6400 hardware platform it has helped the company get its new recorder to the marketplace in only a few months. ComStruct is undoubtedly the best solution for developing products for the rapidly expanding voice recording market."

The new digital recorder, providing an initial handling capacity of 512 channels from a single-slot cPCI system, is ideal for a wide range of non-stop critical applications including call centres, financial trading and public safety, as for example, monitoring and logging emergency calls.

Blue Wave's CPCI/6400 high density DSP platform is optimised for resilient multi-channel processing. Employing four 200MHz C6000 series DSPs it provides an outstanding peak processing power of 6400 MIPS to multiple channels in parallel. Under FACT control, telephone calls are processed, compressed (G.729A or G.723) and then passed to Racal Recorders' powerful database management software for storage. Racal's proprietary database tools are optimised to make search, retrieval and playback of calls faster and more precise than before.

Blue Wave Systems is a leading supplier of DSP-based solutions to the telecommunications industry and provides digital signal processor (DSP) subsystems to more than one-half of the world's top 40 companies. Blue Wave's products include the ComStruct line of building blocks for communications processing applications. For additional information about Blue Wave Systems, please visit the company's web site at www.bluews.com.

Racal Recorders is one of the world's leading manufacturers of voice and data recorders. Its extensive customer base includes call centers, financial institutions, emergency services and public utilities as well as airport authorities in North America, the UK and other global markets. For more information on other products and services access the company's web site at www.racalrecord.com. Racal Recorders is a member of the international Racal Electronics Group that has operating companies worldwide.

This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on expectations of the Company but involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, technological change, quarterly fluctuations, integration of Mizar and Loughborough Sound Images, dependence on the defense industry, dependence on key suppliers and employees, competition, and Year 2000 compliance. The foregoing list should not be construed as exhaustive and the Company disclaims any obligation subsequently to revise forward-looking statements to reflect unanticipated events. For a further explanation of risk factors please see the Company's most recent SEC filings. The Company further cautions users who may utilize published bookings and backlog information as tools to forecast the company's revenue during a given timeframe since certain purchase orders may be subject to 1) cancellation and, 2) revision to delivery schedules.