Grandeye selects 3DLABS' DMS-02 media processor for its next generation 360(degree) intelligent IP surveillance cameras.

DMS-02 enables Grandeye to achieve significant power and cost reductions, opening up new market opportunities for its cameras

LONDON -- NEWS RELEASE - 22nd May 2007 3DLABS SEMICONDUCTOR

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3DLABS Semiconductor, a fabless semiconductor company, today announces that Grandeye Ltd., the market and technology leader in 360[deg] surveillance cameras for situational awareness, is using the DMS-02 multimedia processor in its latest high-specification Halocam Compact IP camera range. The DMS-02's unique performance capability enables Grandeye to manage all the camera's intensive graphics processing requirements on a single chip. The resulting cost reduction has enabled Grandeye to extend its product's appeal into new markets, with the potential to significantly increase its customer base. By using the DMS-02 Grandeye has also been able to reduce the Halocam Compact's power consumption over the previously announced Halocam Pro analog range by a factor of four. Grandeye launched the new Halocam Compact IP series at IFSEC, 21-24 May 2007.

Halocam is Grandeye's affordable, high-resolution fisheye, wide-angle CCTV camera featuring multiple virtual cameras that provide full 360[deg] panoramic scenes, in addition to separate PTZ views, for wide-angle surveillance monitoring and situation awareness. All image processing is conducted on the camera using the DMS-02 processor. The DMS-02's rich set of standard libraries and full programmability enabled Grandeye to implement all its complex intellectual property rights including 10 patents, 16 applications and 20 patent licences relating to 360[deg] image capture, including; video stitching, perspective projection using 3D computer graphics, intelligent virtual camera generation and dome camera emulation. The Halocam Compact IP series is complementary to Grandeye's award winning Halocam Pro analog range and will help Grandeye to address the growing IP CCTV market.

Dr Yavuz Ahiska, founder and CEO of Grandeye Ltd., comments: "The DMS-02 chip is enabling our next generation, 5 megapixel Halocam Compact IP range to comfortably handle a highly intensive 12-bit colour graphics pipeline, image de-warping, intelligence extraction, motion tracking, video compression and streaming via a single chip. We have looked at many other chips and I'm not aware of any other processor with the power to handle this requirement. Achieving this level of performance through a single processor has meant we've been able to reduce the final cost to the customer, which will open up exciting opportunities for us to extend the reach of our high-end technology into new industrial and consumer applications including video call centres, CCTV surveillance, intelligent buildings and domestic premises. Low power was another priority and the 3DLABS chip did not disappoint. DMS-02 has reduced power by a factor of 4 compared to the Halocam Pro analogue range."

Dr Ahiska continues: "It would be impossible to satisfy our processing requirements with a general purpose DSP because they do not carry enough critical I/O memory bandwidth. We've found DMS-02 to be particularly good at efficient cache management, helping us to get the throughput we need. 3DLABS' software development environment and excellent engineering support enabled us to get the best out of the chip. The chip's flexibility allowed us to develop our own proprietary image processing code as well as using standard libraries."

Launched in November 2006, the DMS-02 is based on a multi-core architecture including a fully programmable array of floating-point processors. The pool of processing elements is equally adept at performing video, image, audio, 2D/3D graphics and signal processing tasks.

"The unmatched performance, flexibility and low power consumption of the DMS-02 chip makes it ideally suited to a broad range of media processing applications and markets," said Tim Lewis, sales and marketing director of 3DLABS Semiconductor. "Grandeye has been able to achieve previously unobtainable benefits in video surveillance and image processing as a result of using our technology."

A full suite of hardware and software development tools, CODECs and APIs, including H.264, MP3, AAC, JPEG and OpenGL ES ensure fast time-to-market for OEMs designing next-generation products across a range of fast growing markets, including; portable digital entertainment, portable navigation, video conferencing, automotive infotainment, video surveillance and high-end mobile handsets.

The DMS-02 incorporates 24 floating-point processing elements, dual ARM[R] 926EJ cores, multi-level caches, three bi-directional video stream ports, 32 or 64-bit mobile memory for up to 1.6 GBytes/s bandwidth and peripheral interfaces to LCDs, CMOS sensors, IDE disks, USB OTG, Flash memory and Audio DACs. The device is OS independent with the first Software Development Kits supporting embedded Linux 2.6.

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About 3DLABS Semiconductor

3DLABS Semiconductor is a pioneering fabless semiconductor supplier of fully programmable media processors that deliver a rich mix of video, imaging, 2D/3D graphics, audio and floating-point capabilities. Based on an array of floating-point processing elements and dual ARM[R] cores the architecture has the performance, flexibility and low power consumption required to target a broad range of devices; portable media players, navigation systems, automotive infotainment, video conference and surveillance, mobile handsets and embedded systems. 3DLABS was originally founded in 1994 and has experience in developing fully programmable visual computing solutions with expertise in complex silicon design, parallel processing, hardware design and software development, including pioneering work on OpenGL 2.0 and OpenGL ES. 3DLABS has design centres based in England, and offices in Milpitas, California and Huntsville, Alabama. 3DLABS is currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd.

3DLABS Semiconductor is a registered trademark of 3DLABS Inc., Ltd. in the United States and/or other countries. All other brand and product names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby recognised as such.

Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements related to growth in potential markets for 3DLABS' products and the ability of its products to address consumer needs. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause Creative's actual results to differ materially. Such risks and uncertainties include: 3DLABS' ability to gain market acceptance for its products with customers in the portable digital entertainment, portable navigation, video conferencing, automotive infotainment, video surveillance, high-end mobile handsets and other markets; 3DLABS' ability to timely develop new products that gain market acceptance and to manage frequent product transitions; and competitive pressures in the marketplace. For further information regarding the risks and uncertainties associated with Creative's business, please refer to its filings with the SEC, including its Form 20-F for fiscal 2006 filed with the SEC. Creative undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in Creative's expectations.