OTI-7000 From Oak Technology Is Announced as Industry's First Fully-Integrated, Single-Chip Solution for Digital Terrestrial TV.

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 17, 1999--

Oak Technology (Nasdaq:OAKT), a supplier of silicon, software and platform solutions to store, access and manipulate digital content, today announced an industry breakthrough with the development of the OTI-7000, a single-chip solution for DVB-T digital terrestrial television (DTTV) applications.

Designed with the same functionality offered by multiple sets of chips currently in use in the market, the OTI-7000 is being likened to a complete "system on a chip." The OTI-7000 is a member of a family of terrestrial receiver solutions from Oak's Consumer Group, which also includes the OTI-8215 MPEG system chip, announced today in a related press release.

The OTI-7000 Presents Several Industry Firsts

Digital terrestrial television made its debut in 1998 in Europe, where the United Kingdom today leads the adoption of the DVB-T standard for digital terrestrial broadcasts. According to Dataquest, by the year 2002, digital terrestrial will account for a major portion of the worldwide digital set-top box (STB) market as the adoption rate of the technology expands beyond Europe to Asia and the United States.

The OTI-7000 is Oak Technology's first offering for the digital STB and integrated receiver device market for Europe, which is expected to be the largest market initially before other regions ramp up.

Compliant with the European DVB-T standard for digital terrestrial television, the device includes a COFDM demodulator, FEC decoder and 10-bit ADC, in addition to a highly optimized FFT processor and channel estimation blocks. The OTI-7000 is targeted towards TV and TV tuner manufacturers, plus STB manufacturers shipping into the DVB-T markets.

With its low power dissipation and small die size, the chip, which was developed in .35 micron CMOS process, is ideal for use in tuner modules. In addition, the all-digital feedback loops on the device eliminate the requirement for an external VCXO, reducing OEM integration costs.

The OTI-7000 is the first fully integrated 2K/8K COFDM terrestrial receiver that includes a demodulator, error correction decoder, analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and FFT processor in a single package. Competitive solutions in the market today claiming high levels of integration require additional components such as an ADC, VCXO or microcontroller, which increase the overall system cost for the OEM.

The OTI-7000 is the industry's first device to support single I/F downconversion tuners compared to competitive solutions that require two downconversion stages, thereby reducing the component count and related costs for tuner manufacturers.

The OTI-7000 has also leapfrogged the competition by being the industry's first terrestrial receiver to support both 2K and 8K DVB-T modes of operation. The single-chip solution can be interfaced directly to all commonly available MPEG transport demultiplexor chips (including Oak's OTI-8211 and OTI-8215 MPEG-2 decoders) as well as directly to a DVB common interface.

"The OTI-7000 delivers a complete single-chip, front-end solution with a lower bill-of-materials cost for OEMs, enabling digital STB, TV and TV tuner manufacturers to deliver cost-effective DVB-T compliant products to market quickly," said Paul Vroomen, president of Oak Technology's Consumer Group.

The Consumer Group at Oak Technology develops integrated circuits and system-level solutions for consumer electronics OEMs in the digital media and broadcast markets. Applications for these solutions range from DVD players to cable, satellite and terrestrial STBs and digital video servers. The group also currently has solutions for digital satellite reception systems (OTI-8511).

Oak's consumer products share an evolving system-level and chip-level architecture. This common architecture philosophy allows OEMs in these global markets to quickly and cost-effectively develop products that support the convergence in the digital television (DTV), DVD and STB markets.

Pricing and Availability

Samples and network interface modules of the OTI-7000 are available immediately from Oak Technology. For more information, please contact Oak Technology in Bristol, U.K. at [phone], or visit the company's Web site at www.oaktech.com.

The foregoing statements may consist of forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements may differ materially from actual future events or results. Factors that could cause actual outcome to differ materially from those set forth include, without limitation, the rate of development of infrastructure for the digital broadcast market, the rate of adoption of new technology, market acceptance of the product, competitive pricing actions and marketing programs, among others. For a discussion of such risks, see the Company's most recent SEC Forms 10-K and 10-Q.

About Oak Technology

Founded in 1987, Oak Technology, Inc. designs, develops and markets high-performance semiconductors and related software to original equipment manufacturers worldwide who serve the optical storage, consumer electronics, and digital office equipment markets.

Oak has subsidiaries in Japan (Oak Technology K.K.); Taiwan (Oak Technology, Taiwan); Andover, Mass. (Pixel Magic, Inc.); Bristol, U.K (Oak Technology Ltd.); and Munich, Germany (Oak Technology GmbH). Additional information about Oak Technology and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at www.oaktech.com.

Note to Editors: Oak Technology and the Oak logo are registered trademarks of Oak Technology, Inc. Pixel Magic is a trademark of Oak Technology. All other product names or company names are mentioned for identification purposes only, and may be trademarks of their respective owners.