Conexant Introduces the Industry's Most Highly-Integrated Interactive TV Decoder for Worldwide Digital Satellite Platforms.

Business Editors & High Tech Writers

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 15, 2000

Full-Featured, Flexible Solution Accelerates Manufacturers' Product

Development For Multiple Digital Satellite And Cable Networks

Conexant Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CNXT), today introduced its second-generation interactive TV decoder chip for set-top boxes on digital satellite, cable and terrestrial TV networks.

Integrating a high-performance feature set and flexible architecture into a single set-top box back-end chip, Conexant's CX22490/1 enables manufacturers to design low-cost digital TV set-top boxes that support a broad range of interactive platforms for multi-channel TV networks. The CX22490/1 is designed to complement Conexant's CX24108/110 front-end chipset for digital broadcast satellite (DBS) applications, also announced today. These new products combined offer a complete satellite set-top box system solution.

A comprehensive silicon and software solution, Conexant's CX22490/1 is an ideal solution as interactivity becomes firmly established in the mainstream set-top box market by delivering leading-edge performance in a low-cost form factor. Building on Conexant's previous generation interactive TV decoder offering, this solution is the centerpiece of the company's portfolio of next-generation set-top box components including cable modems, silicon tuners, demodulators, TV encoder chips and analog modems.

"Conexant's CX22490/1 offers OEMs a compelling value proposition by enabling the latest interactive applications on a cost-effective hardware platform," said Eric Rayel, product line manager for Conexant's Digital Infotainment Division. "Our solution is uniquely positioned to address the performance needs of new mainstream markets for network-centric and thin-client interactive set-top boxes that are being enhanced with on-line services and personal video recorder (PVR) applications."

Conexant is the only supplier providing a complete system chip-set solution with support for worldwide DBS and European terrestrial set-top boxes. In addition to supporting multiple global standards, Conexant's set-top box solution provides the flexibility to adapt to new operator multiplex requirements with a programmable transport stream demultiplexing architecture.

According to market research firm Cahners In-Stat Group, the market for digital cable, satellite and terrestrial set-top boxes is poised to grow from 19 million in 2000 to 39 million in 2003. "The set-top box market is a moving target, and the features consumers value are continuously changing," said Michelle Abraham, senior analyst, Cahners In-Stat Group. "As a result, OEMs must be able to adapt their products very quickly to changing market demands -- and a flexible silicon and software platform, such as Conexant's, can be critical to a manufacturer's market competitiveness."

The product includes fully tested software drivers for interactive middleware and real-time operating system platforms. This is a key feature for system manufacturers as set-top boxes, and the software required to support their advanced features, have become increasingly complex. Equipped with fully-integrated Open TV, pSOS and VxWorks driver and BSP software components, Conexant's comprehensive system-level approach reduces development costs and time-to-market. Conexant has integrated its CX22490/1 and software into a comprehensive set-top box system reference design using a complete Conexant system chipset. The product also provides superior flexibility with a generic device driver set which can be adapted to an alternate middleware platform by the manufacturer.

A Comprehensive Platform for Interactive Set-Top Boxes

Conexant's highly-integrated, system-on-a-chip architecture supports a low bill-of-materials cost, incorporating all the major subsystems required to implement the core system and decoder electronics of a digital interactive TV set-top box. Today's mainstream set-top box platforms need to support PC-quality graphics and a new level of interactivity, creating the need for high-performance processing on a low-cost, highly-integrated chip. Conexant's CX22490/1 incorporates a high-performance, 32-bit RISC CPU, 2D graphics rendering engine and an unified SDRAM memory controller. The CX22490/1 combines these components with an MPEG-2 video decoder core, an audio digital signal processor (DSP) for MPEG/Dolby Digital processing and a dedicated RISC processor with on-chip SRAM for transport stream demultiplexing. This programmable transport stream processor enables support for multiple broadcaster multiplex standards and PVR applications.

The product's advanced video/graphics compositing engine and 2D graphics rendering engine support rich visual interactive user interfaces with multiple-image planes and fast-drawing performance required for the latest interactive applications. With a high-performance unified memory architecture, the CX22490/1 reduces memory costs by servicing all system requirements in a single 32-bit wide SDRAM buffer. Additional system component cost savings are realized via complete integration of front panel control interfaces, V.22bis software modem controller/datapump and voltage-controlled crystal oscillator (VCXO). Conexant's CX22490 also supports direct hard disk drive attachment for PVR applications and an integrated USB 1.1 host controller. The CX22490 incorporates a DVB descrambler and the CX22491 includes additional functionality to support the Videoguard(TM) Conditional Access System developed by NDS Ltd.

Pricing and Availability

Samples of the CX22490/1 are available in June 2000, and priced at $25 for the 120 MHz CPU version and at $28 for the 160 MHz version in quantities of 100,000 units.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains statements relating to future results of the company (including certain projections and business trends) that are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those projected as a result of certain risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: global and market conditions, including, but not limited to, the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry and the markets addressed by the company's and its customers' products; demand for and market acceptance of new and existing products; successful development of new products; the timing of new product introductions; the availability and extent of utilization of manufacturing capacity; pricing pressures and other competitive factors; changes in product mix; fluctuations in manufacturing yields; product obsolescence; the ability to develop and implement new technologies and to obtain protection for the related intellectual property; the successful implementation of the company's diversification strategy; labor relations of the company, its customers and suppliers; and the uncertainties of litigation, as well as other risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to those detailed from time to time in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof, and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Other brands and names contained in this release are the property of their respective owners.

About Conexant Systems

With a revenue run-rate of approximately $2 billion per year, Conexant is the world's largest independent company focused exclusively on providing semiconductor solutions 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 S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 Indices. For more information, visit Conexant at www.conexant.com.