Shift to All-Digital PC Hastened by Broad Graphics Chip Support for Silicon Image PanelLink Digital Technology.

CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 12, 1998--

NVIDIA, 3Dfx, Rendition, S3, STMicroelectronics and Trident Added

to the List of Graphics Chip Companies Supporting the

Silicon Image Digital Interface Standard

Silicon Image announced today that all major manufacturers of graphics accelerator chips have now agreed to provide direct interfaces on their future products to Silicon Image's PanelLink(TM) Digital discrete transmitter chips. This greatly simplifies the task for PC and graphics board manufacturers of adding standardized, digital video interfaces to their products. Such interfaces are expected to be a standard feature in 1999 and beyond, as consumers begin to shift to digital flat-panel displays and digital monitors. PanelLink is an enabling technology for this accelerating digital-display market.

Today's announcement is the first time NVIDIA, 3Dfx, Rendition, S3, STMicroelectronics, and Trident have acknowledged their support for the PanelLink interface. Matrox, ATI, 3Dlabs and SiS had already announced products which interface directly to PanelLink discrete transmitters.

By agreeing to support the PanelLink Digital interface these graphics accelerator providers will design versions of their chips with additional digital pins which can be connected directly to a discrete PanelLink transmitter chip. The latter chips, whether they are on an add-in board or the mother-board of a PC or other system, will then enable an all-digital end-to-end link to the digital display.

"Silicon Image's PanelLink digital technology will allow the visual quality and performance of the RIVA TNT to be delivered in an optimized manner for mainstream consumer and corporate PC users," said Lew Paceley, vice president of corporate marketing at NVIDIA.

"PanelLink is the de facto standard digital interface for the digital display market," said Janet Leising, vp engineering, 3Dfx interactive. "Our OEM (original equipment manufacturers) customers and their end users can seamlessly benefit from the superior image quality at the lowest cost to meet the growing demand for digital displays."

The market shift to the all-digital PC was accelerated earlier this year by Compaq's announcement of its Presario line of digital-capable computers in June, followed by the formation, this summer, of the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG) by Dell, IBM, Compaq, Fujitsu, H-P, NEC, Intel, Microsoft, and Silicon Image, to foster rapid adoption of digital displays. According to Jon Peddie, president, Jon Peddie Associates, a digital media research firm, the market for all-digital PCs and digital flat panel displays is expected to exceed $4 billion by the year 2002 (includes panel and controller).

Added Peddie, "Digital displays offer all of the high-quality characteristics which digital implies -- clean high quality images and now, low cost. Today's users are demanding these features, and Silicon Image's PanelLink technology is at the heart of this digital revolution."

"Up until now, virtually all CRTs and other display devices were analog, and the data transmitted from a PC to a display device had to be converted to analog," said Scott Macomber, Silicon Image president. "The use of legacy analog interfaces between computers and digital displays reduces image quality and significantly increases costs to the consumer, but PanelLink technology has been able to change all that."

Digital displays achieve their highest quality and lowest cost with an end-to-end, all-digital, industry-standard link technology -- from inside the computer through the cable and into the monitor itself.

Silicon Image, Inc. is the industry leader in high-speed, low-cost all-digital video/graphics display interface technology. The company's PanelLink technology implements the industry's only standard, open, scaleable, end-to-end, serial, all-digital physical connectivity between computers, controllers, or other sources of video and digital video display devices such as flat-panel monitors. The PanelLink protocol has been adopted as the underlying technology by the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG). Silicon Image designs and markets families of low-cost IC's for use by both computer/controller manufacturers and manufacturers of flat-panel displays. Customers include IBM, Compaq, Gateway, ATI, Artpix, Matrox, STB, Elsa, I/O Data, Melco, Spectrah, Viewsonic, Mag Innovision, Princeton Graphics, LG Electronics, Samsung, Siemens-Nixdorf, Toshiba, and others. Silicon Image, Inc., based in Cupertino, CA, is privately held. The company's web address is www.siimage.com.

Note to Editors: All trademarks and registered trademarks are those of their respective companies. The text of this release as well as additional background information may be downloaded from our Web site at www.roederj.com.