Tensilica's Xtensa HiFi Audio Engine is First 24-bit SOC Solution to Receive Dolby Approval for Dolby Digital Decode and Consumer Encode

SANTA CLARA, Calif., February 9, 2004 - Tensilica, Inc., today announced that it has received Dolby Laboratories' approval for the Xtensa HiFi Audio Engine's high-performance Dolby Digital (AC-3) audio decoding and consumer encoding capabilities. This is the first 24-bit audio solution for system-on-chip (SOC) designs to earn approval from Dolby Laboratories. Tensilica's solution was achieved through the combination of special hardware to accelerate the decoding and encoding algorithms as well as an optimized implementation of the Dolby software that utilizes the special hardware. This turnkey solution is available now for SOC designers who want to quickly add high-quality and proven audio capabilities to home entertainment systems, car audio and other consumer audio products.

"We are impressed by the excellent audio fidelity of Tensilica's configurable Xtensa processor and what has been done with the Xtensa HiFi Audio Engine," stated Craig Eggers, director of marketing, consumer technologies, Dolby Laboratories. "The Xtensa HiFi Audio Engine fulfills all audio quality requirements for Dolby Digital, and audio product designers using this solution have a considerable head start towards obtaining Dolby's approval for their solution."

The 24-bit Xtensa HiFi Audio Engine has inherent advantages over the industry standard 16-bit audio processors in widespread use today. It provides increased precision for intermediate calculations of the compression and decompression algorithms.

"The Dolby Laboratories approval is a key milestone for our Xtensa HiFi Audio Engine," stated Bernie Rosenthal, senior vice president of marketing and sales for Tensilica. "A wide variety of consumer products are being designed with audio capabilities. The Xtensa HiFi Audio Engine makes it easy for designers to develop cost-effective solutions that integrate industry standards, like Dolby Digital."

In addition to supporting Dolby Digital AC-3 decode and consumer encode, the Xtensa HiFi Audio Engine also supports MP3 decode and encode, MPEG-2/4 AAC decode and encode, and WMA decode. It also supports G723-1 and G729AB speech codecs for highly optimized, multi-standard, voice-over-IP (VoIP) SOC designs. Because the engine is programmable, multiple standards can run on the same hardware, allowing the same silicon to be used for multiple applications or the same device to play or record audio encoded in different standards. In addition, designers can further customize the underlying Xtensa processor so it can be used for other functions on the chip.

All of the algorithm solutions for the Xtensa HiFi Audio Engine were designed and developed by CuTe Solutions, Hyderabad, India. CuTe Solutions has a dedicated ASIC design team that designs and develops DSP/Xtensa Processor based SoC platforms catering to audio and voice applications.  The company has expertise in fixed-point and floating-point DSP software and embedded application development including video solutions development. For more information, visit www.cutesolinc.com .

About Tensilica

Tensilica was founded in July 1997 to address the growing need for optimized, application-specific microprocessor solutions in high-volume embedded applications. With a configurable and extensible microprocessor core called Xtensa, Tensilica is the only company that has automated and patented the time-consuming process of generating a customized microprocessor core along with a complete software development tool environment, producing new configurations in a matter of hours. For more information, visit www.tensilica.com .

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Editors' Notes:

• "Tensilica" and "Xtensa" are registered trademarks belonging to Tensilica Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
• Tensilica's announced licensees include Agilent, AMCC (JNI Corporation), Astute Networks, Avision, Bay Microsystems, Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Conexant Systems, Crimson Microsystems, Cypress, ETRI, FUJIFILM Microdevices, Fujitsu Ltd., Hudson Soft, Hughes Network Systems, Ikanos Communications, LG Electronics, Marvell, NEC Laboratories America, NEC Corporation, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT), Olympus Optical Co. Ltd., S2io, Solid State Systems (3S), Sony, STMicroelectronics, TranSwitch Corporation, and Victor Company of Japan (JVC)