Conexant Enables New Broadcast Applications With a Single-Chip Solution for PC Video and Television.

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 13, 1999--

Conexant's Fusion(TM) 878A Provides New Flexibility for

PC Card Manufacturers and PC OEMs Supporting Both

Analog and Digital Television Markets

Continuing its leadership in the PC video and broadcast market, Conexant Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CNXT), Monday announced a new addition to its Fusion(TM) family of PCI-based video decoders.

The Fusion 878A is a single-chip solution for audio and video capture, and is among the first solutions to support emerging digital TV (DTV) applications on the PC platform. The Fusion 878A builds on the architectural advances of the company's widely supported and field-proven Bt878 and Bt879 PCI video decoders, which were the first of their kind to integrate both audio and video capture into a single-chip solution.

Today, the Bt878 and Bt879 have provided millions of end-users with the lowest cost, feature-rich analog PC video and television cards available. The Fusion 878A extends this platform by combining Microsoft PC99 compliance and Advanced Configuration Power Interface (ACPI) compatibility with support for emerging market segments like PC digital television and PC digital VCR.

Fully pin and software compatible with Conexant's Bt878 and Bt879 PCI video decoders, the Fusion 878A enables current Conexant customers to incrementally add digital television to their existing analog offerings more quickly and cost-effectively than alternative offerings.

The Fusion 878A preserves customers' existing software investment in analog television drivers and applications, providing a significant time-to-market advantage. Because the Fusion 878A can be used for both analog and digital broadcast applications, board manufacturers can offer multiple products using the same chip and same software.

"The Fusion 878A will extend our successful line of PC television solutions with what continues to be the industry leader for functionality, while meeting the needs of mainstream consumers -- for as little as $49," said John Graham, vice president of marketing, computer products for Conexant's Digital Infotainment division.

"At the same time, Fusion 878A addresses the evolving market for digital broadcast and the move to host-based decoding of high-definition TV (HDTV) possible on Intel's recently announced PIII platform, while also supporting video CODECS in hardware. As more consumers look to the PC as a convergence platform for both computing and entertainment, these capabilities will become key differentiators for TV card manufacturers and PC OEMs, and provide growth opportunities for the PC industry."

According to industry analyst firm Cahners In-Stat Group, the worldwide market for DTV tuners for personal computers will grow to nearly 3 million units by 2002.

"The anticipated growth in DTV tuner cards for PCs will be key to fueling the market penetration of digital televisions over the next several years," said Gerry Kaufhold, principal analyst at Cahners In-Stat Group. "By enabling consumers to reap the benefits of digital television at significantly lower cost points than early generation digital TV sets, DTV-equipped PCs will expand the reach of digital television to a broad base of consumers."

The first customer for the Fusion 878A will be Hauppauge Computer Works Inc., a leading provider of retail broadcast and television products for the PC market. The Fusion 878A will be incorporated into the first digital television receiver from Hauppauge.

"The Fusion 878A provided the feature set, PC99 compliance and flexibility we needed for our first-generation digital television receiver products," said Ken Aupperle, president of Hauppauge Computer Works. "The product's pin and software compatibility with Conexant's Bt878 and Bt879 allow us to leverage our existing investment in software for analog television receiver cards while quickly bringing to market our digital television products."

Enabling New Broadcast Applications On The PC

The Fusion 878A uses the same core technology as Conexant's successful Bt878 and Bt879 PCI video decoders, which have helped popularize PC television in systems such as the Dell Dimension and Gateway Destination, as well as add-in cards such as Hauppauge's Win TV line, ATI's TV Wonder and 3Dfx's Desktop TV.

To enable the data transfer rates required by digital TV applications, the Fusion 878A supports high-speed interfaces such as a serial port (at 20 MB/s) and the GPIO port (at 40 Mb/s). The system architecture of the Fusion 878A allows connection to a wide range of 8-VSB (eight-level vestigial side band) and COFDM (coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) demodulators, enabling software media processing and giving OEMs the flexibility to offer PC TV products compliant with various global digital TV standards.

Full Standards Compliance and Software Support

The Fusion 878A is Microsoft PC98 and PC99 compliant, ensuring its full compatibility with Windows operating systems. Additionally, the Fusion 878A conforms to ACPI and power management requirements outlined in the PCI Bus Power Management Specification 1.0. The Fusion 878A provides full support for Windows 95 and Windows 98, including a complete suite of Video for Windows (VfW) and Windows Driver Model (WDM) software drivers and development tools.

With more than 90 percent market-segment share in PCI video decoders, Conexant introduced its first solutions for this market in 1996. Today, Conexant offers the industry's most comprehensive portfolio of semiconductor solutions for broadcast applications including satellite receivers, set-top boxes, video encoders and decoders.

Pricing and Availability

Packaged as a 128-pin PQFP, samples of the Fusion 878A are available now. Production quantities will be available in Q4 1999 for $15 in 10,000 unit

quantities.

With revenues of more than $1.2 billion, Conexant is the world's largest independent company focused exclusively on providing semiconductor products for communications electronics. With more than 30 years of experience in developing communications technology, the company draws upon its expertise in mixed-signal processing to deliver integrated systems and semiconductor products for a broad range of communications applications.

These products facilitate communications worldwide through wireline voice and data communications networks, cordless and cellular wireless telephony systems, personal imaging devices and equipment, and emerging cable and wireless broadband communications networks. The company aligns its business into five product platforms: Network Access, Wireless Communications, Digital Infotainment, Personal Imaging and Personal Computing.

Conexant is a member of the Nasdaq-100 Index, which represents the largest and most active stocks listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market across major industry groups.

Frequently-Asked Questions

About Conexant's Fusion 878A

Sept. 13, 1999

1. What is digital television?

Digital television (DTV) has several different definitions. To the broadcast industry, digital television means high-definition television (HDTV). To the cable industry, the current definition is digital compression and transport of a signal to increase channel capacity. To the satellite industry, digital television means digital broadcast satellite (DBS) or digital video broadcasting (DVB), depending on the worldwide location of the transmission and respective standard adopted. To the consumer, digital television provides a better way of watching TV with sharper pictures, clearer sound and a wider viewing area. New, low-cost PC analog and digital television receiver cards are now coming to market and making the benefits of DTV accessible to a broad base of consumers at a much lower price point than early generation digital TV sets.

2. What are the advantages of digital television?

DTV provides higher quality images and, depending on the definition selected, allows for higher-resolutions and wider-screen displays than analog television, as well as higher-quality sound. With higher resolutions up to 1920x1080, TV simply looks dramatically better. DTV also enables the creation of new interactive multimedia and digital broadcast services. Imagine watching the Green Bay versus San Francisco game and being able to click on icons which can provide you with statistics of the players (in a window) -- without interrupting the game. With the advent of two-way DTV capability, this vision can be taken several steps further. Imagine watching that same game while simultaneously purchasing tickets to the Charger game next weekend.

3. What is a PCI video decoder?

A PCI video decoder "interprets" data from an analog video source, which can be an analog camera, VCR or TV tuner. It converts the video information into a digital video stream. The video data is then transmitted over the PCI bus to system and/or graphics memory where the graphics card takes the video data and displays it on a PC monitor. An analog video decoder has historically been used for three primary PC applications: video capture and editing, video teleconferencing and television receiver cards. This is beginning to change with new emerging video market segments like digital television and applications like MPEG DVCR (digital VCR).

4. What is Conexant's history in the PCI video decoder market?

Conexant has been a leading provider of video decoders since 1993, when the company introduced its first video decoder. In 1996, Conexant took this technology several steps further, and introduced the industry's first PCI video decoder -- adding direct PCI bus mastering connectivity into the PC. To date, Conexant continues to compete aggressively in the PCI market and is the only manufacturer to ship production volumes of PCI video decoders (analog video decoders with an integrated PCI bridge).

5. Who are Conexant's customers for PCI video decoders?

Conexant's customers include leading PC card vendors such as Hauppauge, ATI, 3Dfx, Avermedia, Aims Labs and Pinnacle. Conexant's leading PC OEM customers include Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, NEC and Sharp.

6. How does the Fusion 878A compare with competitive products?

The Fusion 878A delivers the highest level of integration and most flexible solution for analog and digital television PC receiver cards. Conexant's approach leverages its cross platform broadcast technologies into the digital television market by providing a high-speed general purpose I/O and serial port to allow connection to a wide range of 8-VSB (eight-level vestigial side band) and OFDM demodulators. This gives OEMs the support they need to deliver digital TV products that meet the full spectrum of international standards.

The Fusion 878A also provides Microsoft PC 99 compliance and unprecedented flexibility for TV card OEMs supporting both analog and digital products. Fully pin compatible with all of Conexant's Fusion video decoders, the Fusion 878A enables current Conexant customers to transition to digital solutions more quickly and cost-effectively than alternative offerings. The Fusion 878A uses the same software code base as Conexant's analog products, preserving customers' software investment and providing a time-to-market advantage for their future digital television products.

7. How is the Fusion 878A different from Conexant's other media decoders, such as the Bt878/879?

The Fusion 878A is Conexant's first offering for digital TV receiver card applications. It is pin-to-pin and software forward compatible with Conexant's analog decoders, including the Bt878/879, so customers can use the Fusion 878A in both their analog and digital television receiver products. To support digital television and other high-bandwidth broadcast applications, the Fusion 878A incorporates a high-speed serial port (40 Mb/s) and high-speed general-purpose I/O (20 MB/s) interface. The product is also compliant with Microsoft PC98 and PC99 standards, ensuring its full compatibility with Windows operating systems.

8. How big is the market for DTV tuners for PCs?

According to industry analyst firm Cahners In-Stat Group, the worldwide market for DTV tuners for personal computers will grow to nearly 3 million units by 2002, and 20 million units by 2004.

9. What market segments are adopting PC/TV receiver cards? Will the growing base of sub-$1000 PCs be a target market?

Most PC television cards are offered by manufacturers like Hauppauge, ATI and 3Dfx in the $49 to $129 price range. Many PC OEMs are offering PC TV tuner cards as part of the build to order programs, while others are focused on high-end systems only. With this technology available in retail as low as $49, it won't take much to make PC TV ubiquitous. The sub-$1000 segment is a perfect opportunity for PC TV tuner cards, where cost-conscious purchasers are looking to combine more than one electronics function together -- a PC and TV. PC TV is also a great differentiator for PC OEMs.

10. What are the primary uses for today's analog TV tuner cards?

A random sample of U.S. retail customers showed that most respondents purchased their PC television card to watch television on their PC. It is interesting to note that more than 25 percent of the respondents use their PC television card to watch, capture and edit video either as the primary application, or in addition to watching television. This is an amazing result considering that most of these users are wrestling with large .avi files that likely fill their hard drives to maximum capacity with less than 30 minutes of video. With the introduction of the first host-based DVCR applications and time-shifting (see question 14) functionality, video capture will take on new meaning with end-users. Two hours of VCR quality video (a movie) can easily be stored on a hard drive with much room to spare for other applications.

11. What software runs on an analog TV tuner card?

TV tuner cards come with a variety of applications. The TV application or TV Viewer provides all of the same selection and control capability as a traditional television set. Almost all applications offer an on-screen remote control and unlimited screen size selection, allowing you to stretch the TV image to the size you want including full screen. Some even offer a physical remote control, so you can watch TV from your sofa in the same way you would a normal television. Some of the more innovative TV Viewer features include "instant replay" and DVCR functionality. Many manufacturers bundle other third-party applications with their products. These generally fall into the category of video capture and edit, video e-mail and teleconferencing. With the breadth of software that is typically included with TV tuner cards, OEMs must invest significant time and resources to developing software to accompany their products.

12. What standards are applicable to analog PC television receiver cards in the U.S.?

The standards for television transmission and reception in the U.S. are developed by the FCC. TV tuner cards must adhere to the same standards as television manufacturers. In the U.S., the video standard used is called NTSC (National Television Standards Committee). The NTSC standard also dictates that 30 complete pictures (frames) are to be sent (and received by the television or TV tuner card) by the video source each second. This is required so that the viewer cannot see the image changing, which would be interpreted by the human eye as flicker.

13. How will the introduction of digital TV products for the PC platform enhance market acceptance of PC/TV applications?

The emergence of digital TV products for the PC enables a new class of broadcast, multimedia and entertainment applications on the PC, such as DVCR. These new applications will dramatically increase the adoption rate of television on the PC.

14. What is digital VCR (DVCR)?

DVCR is new PC technology that is emerging within the television on the PC market segment enabling PCs to function as high-resolution video recorders and digital editing machines. It is the "digital" version of a standard videocassette recorder (VCR), and allows high-quality compression and recording on the PC hard drive with superior features and functions compared to traditional analog VCRs.

Take the VCR concept one step further and imagine watching real-time TV, pausing the show, and returning five or 10 minutes later to resume watching the show from the point you left off. This is possible with enhanced DVCR functionality called time-shifting. What happens is while the user is watching "real-time" TV, the application is actually recording in the background, and all of the video that is being displayed is actually playback from this recording file. The act of pausing or "time-shifting" does not pause the recording action, only the playback action.

Simultaneous encode and decode (compression/decompression) are required to provide this functionality. It is believed this enhanced technology is the real "killer" application of the PC digital VCR function. This is a feature even today's $200 to $500 home VCR cannot provide.

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