Diamond Multimedia's Top-Selling Viper V550 Graphics Accelerator Chosen by Fujitsu Ltd. for Its High-Performance Personal Computers.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 8, 1998--

Diamond's Viper V550 Brings Best-of-Class Graphics

Acceleration to the Powerful PC User

Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc., (Nasdaq:DIMD), a leader in interactive multimedia and PC entertainment, announced today that its award-winning Viper V550 graphics accelerator, featuring NVIDIA's RIVA TNT(TM) controller, has been selected by Fujitsu Ltd. for several of their new high-quality desktop computers available in Japan.

Diamond Multimedia's Viper V550 8MB AGP accelerator is the standard graphics accelerator included in Fujitsu's FMV-6400TX2 and FMV-6450TX2 Pentium II desktop systems for the corporate environment. Additionally, the Viper V550 16MB AGP graphics board is standard in the FMV-DESKPOWER TVIII457 Pentium II personal computer for the power-PC consumer market.

"We are pleased to announce another integral partnership this year with Fujitsu Ltd. to provide top-quality solutions for PC customers," said Bryan Pini, vice president of international sales at Diamond Multimedia. "This design win is evidence of progress toward our goal of being the number one partner with the top-tier OEM system manufacturers and fulfilling the high-performance needs of both the consumer and corporate markets."

"The FMV line of Fujitsu PCs incorporates the latest in technology to provide the speed and power required to take advantage of today's corporate and consumer PC applications," said Manager of Engineering Department III, Desktop Products Division at Fujitsu Limited, Mr. Tetsuo Tamura. "With the advanced performance of Diamond's Viper V550 high-performance graphics accelerator, our personal computer customers can benefit from more realistic 3D graphics at higher resolutions and refresh rates."

In the United States, Diamond Multimedia's Viper V550 has received several major computer trade press awards including PC Computing Magazine's "MVP Award" as the top 3-D hardware gaming accelerator for 1998 in the December 1998 issue, and PC World Magazine's "Best Buy" award in the December 1998 issue.

The Best-of-Class Viper V550

Diamond Multimedia's Viper V550 retail configuration, available in AGP 2X and PCI versions, features NVIDIA's RIVA TNT processor, the first single-chip 128-bit 3D processor able to process two pixels per clock cycle to provide true single-pass multi-texturing for exceptional 3D realism. Scaleable resolution support of up to 1920x1200, ultra-fast fill rates up to 180 million pixels-per-second and an enhanced dual 32-bit color 3D pipeline all contribute to the Viper V550's spectacular performance and visual quality output.

The retail version of Diamond's Viper V550 also delivers a full hardware triangle set-up engine, full screen anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, 24-bit Z-buffer, 8-bit stencil buffer, bump mapping, MPEG playback, TV output and more. With an integrated 250MHz DAC, Diamond's new Viper V550 graphics accelerator is fully optimized for the industry's most popular Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), including OpenGL(R) and Microsoft's Direct3D(R).

In addition, Diamond's new accelerator is multimedia upgradeable with the company's DTV2000 TV tuner/video capture card. Diamond Multimedia's U.S. retail AGP version of the Viper V550 ships with Zoran's SoftDVD software. The Viper V550 is available for an U.S. estimated retail price (ERP) of $169.95 through a wide variety of retail and e-commerce partners, as well as directly from Diamond's Online Store at http://www.diamondmm.com/where-to-buy/online-store/ .

About Fujitsu

Fujitsu Limited is a leading provider of information technology products and solutions for the global marketplace. Founded in Japan in 1935 as a telephone equipment maker, the Fujitsu Group had consolidated revenues of $37.7 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, 1998. With over 500 group companies, including Amdahl Corporation and ICL PLC, Fujitsu is one of the world's largest suppliers of computers and information systems solutions, telecommunications and semiconductor products, software and services.

The Fujitsu Group has over 180,000 employees worldwide and operations in more than 100 countries. Further information about Fujitsu Ltd. is available on the company's web site at http://www.fujitsu.co.jp/hypertext/About_fujitsu/index-e.html .

About Diamond Multimedia

Diamond Multimedia is driving the interactive multimedia market by providing advanced solutions for home, business and professional desktop computer users, enabling them to create, access and experience compelling new media content from their desktops and through the Internet. Diamond accelerates multimedia from the Internet to the user with products that include the Stealth and Viper(R) series of media accelerators, the Monster series of entertainment 3D and sound accelerators, the Fire series of professional 3D and SCSI accelerators, the Micronics series of system boards, the Supra(R) series of modems, and the HomeFree line of home networking products. Diamond's common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol DIMD, and its web site address is http://www.diamondmm.com .

How to Contact Diamond Multimedia

There are many ways to reach Diamond for sales support, technical assistance, driver updates and general information: -0-

Internet Web Site: http://www.diamondmm.com
Diamond Multimedia's Headquarters and Multimedia Division:
 408/325-7000; Fax: [phone]
Communications Division (Supra brand modems) Main Phone Number:
 360/604-1400; Fax: [phone]
European Division (Germany): [phone]; (UK): [phone];
 (France) [phone]
Korean Office (Seoul): [phone]; Fax: [phone]
Japanese Office (Tokyo): [phone]; Fax: [phone]
ASEAN Office (Singapore): [phone]; Fax: [phone]
Hong Kong Office: [phone]; Fax: [phone]
Australian Office (Sydney): [phone]; Fax [phone]
Swedish Office: [phone]; Fax [phone]
Product Support (Voice), United States: 541-967-2450; Europe
 (Germany) [phone]; Europe (UK) [phone]; Europe
 (France) [phone]; TDD/TTY Support 541-967-2451
Product Support (Fax), United States: 541-967-2401; Europe (Germany)
 [phone]; Europe (UK): [phone]; (France)
 [phone]
Pre-sales Information: 1-800-468-5846
24-Hour Fax-On-Demand Service: 1-800-380-0030
Investor Relations: 408/325-7476; 1-888-474-3463 (U.S. and Canada)
FTP site: ftp.diamondmm.com
BBS: 541-967-2444 (to 33.6 Kbps); Europe (Germany) BBS at
 [phone] (to 28.8 Kbps) or [phone] (ISDN); Europe
 (UK) at [phone] (to 33.6 Kbps)

-0-

Note to Editors: Monster 3D, Supra and HomeFree are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc. Monster(R) is a registered trademark of Monster Cable. Viper(R) is a registered trademark of Directed Electronics, Inc., Used under License. All other trademarks referenced are the service mark, trademark or registered trademark of their respective manufacturers. This announcement relates to products whose introductions are in North America. The product name, contents, prices and availability may differ elsewhere in the world according to local factors and requirements.

Except for historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, such as statements relating to the Company's ability to successfully exploit technological and market developments, the timing and success of new product introductions by the Company and its competitors, and the Company's ability to invest in new technologies and to enhance its existing systems are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, including the impact of competitive products and pricing and alternative technological advances, the timely and successful development and market acceptance of new products and upgrades to existing products, and other risks as detailed from time to time in Diamond Multimedia's SEC filings, including its most recent Forms 10-K and 10-Q.