Sigma Designs Announces Single-Chip REALmagic DVD/MPEG-2 Decoder

Most Highly Integrated Single-Chip DVD Solution Available -- Includes PCI Interface, MPEG-2 Decoder, and Scalar on One IC; Product to be Launched at WinHEC 98

FREMONT, Calif. --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- March 24, 1998 -- Sigma Designs, Inc. (Nasdaq:SIGM - news), a leader in digital video solutions for personal computers, today announced the EM8300 REALmagic DVD/MPEG-2/MPEG-1 decoder IC. Integrating virtually all functions of a DVD decoder on one chip, the EM8300 includes a PCI 2.1 master/slave interface, VMI 1.4 interface, MPEG-2 decoder, and a video scalar with bilinear interpolation filtering in both X and Y directions on a single IC. The Sigma Designs EM8300 performs all MPEG decompression in both PAL and NTSC modes and video frame rate conversion with only 2 MB of memory. With its built-in S/PDIF encoder, it will turn a PC into a full-featured home theater DVD player that fully exploits all of the digital video and digital surround sound capabilities of DVD. The EM8300 will be demonstrated at WinHEC 98, March 25-27, at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Fla. in Sigma Designs' Booth No. 432.

The feature-packed EM8300 DVD decoder is fully DVD compliant, providing CSS copy protection, sub-picture processing, letterbox, Pan & Scan and alpha-blending. The IC produces flexible video output rate from interlaced NTSC/PAL to non-interlaced VGA with bob and weave filter, vertical refresh rate up to 120 Hz, resolution up to 1600 x 1200, and pixel clock up to 80 MHz for sharp and clear video image quality. On-chip digital controls adjust brightness, contrast, and color saturation.

"The DVD market is continuing to grow significantly. At the same time, PCs and high quality home entertainment systems continue their path toward convergence," commented Thinh Tran, Sigma Designs' Chairman and CEO. "Consequently, we believe that graphic card and motherboard suppliers need a comprehensive DVD solution. The EM8300 will complement Sigma's industry-leading DVD board level products by providing a highly integrated, cost effective, and the highest quality DVD solution that is available today."

Industry-Leading Features

The EM8300 feature set draws on Sigma's industry-leading experience in the DVD/MPEG-2 market with such designs as REALmagic Ventura and REALmagic Hollywood. The result is a blend of performance and affordability. Reducing external components to a bare minimum, the EM8300 includes an on-chip PCI 2.1 master/slave interface; scaling up to 1600 x 1200 resolution with bilinear interpolation filtering in both X and Y directions; NTSC, PAL, and VGA frame rate converter with bob and weave de-interlacing technology; digital brightness, contrast, color, and gamma controls, and DDC support. Dolby digital stereo and S/PDIF audio outputs ensure compatibility with most high-end home theater systems.

"Sigma has established itself as the technology and quality leader in the DVD/MPEG market and has long been a driving force behind advancement of MPEG technology," continued Tran. "EM8300 is the latest demonstration that Sigma continues to leverage its technology leadership to meet the growing needs of this new and dynamic market by providing the best DVD picture quality ever seen on computer monitors."

Based on an embedded 66 mips RISC core, the EM8300 is capable of up to 20 Mbps sustained input channel data rate for very high video quality. Fabricated in power-saving 0.35 micron, CMOS, the EM8300 is supplied in a 208 pin TQFP package.

Comprehensive Reference Design and OEM Manufacturing Kit

Facilitating the development of systems based on the EM8300, a complete turnkey reference design is available from Sigma Designs. A comprehensive hardware and software solution completely ready for manufacturing, the reference design includes an evaluation board, schematics, Gerber printed circuit board plots, drivers, and Sigma's DVD-Station software.

DVD-Station is an easy-to-use program for DVD navigation and control. With DVD-Station, PC users can take full advantage of interactive DVD features, using simple VCR-like controls to chose the sound track and subtitle language, select viewing aspect ratios, and change viewing angles. The user interface is intuitive and easy to navigate. Users can also use DVD-Station menus to exercise parental control and perform search commands.

DVD System Design Alternatives

The EM8300 is an ideal solution for DVD implementations including Analog Overlay, Digital Overlay, and VMI Bus applications. For VGA Analog Overlay designs, Sigma provides a new companion device, the Sigma EM9010 Analog Overlay chip. Analog overlay technology eliminates all compatibility issues with existing graphics controllers.

Samples of the EM8300 and EM9010 are available, and mass production is slated for Q2'98. EM8300 is expected to be available in 1000-piece quantities at $39 per piece.

About Sigma Designs:

Sigma Designs entered the multimedia market in 1993 with products based on the MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) standard for compressing and decompressing digital audio and video signals. Since then, Sigma has been a driving force behind advancement of the MPEG technology used in most multimedia products on the market today. Sigma Designs' products include affordable MPEG video and audio decoding hardware. All Sigma Design's products are sold worldwide through a network of dealers, distributors, and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). For additional information, call 800/845-8086 or 510/770-0100, fax 510/770-2640 or visit Sigma's web site at http://www.sigmadesigns.com

This press release contains forward-looking statements including statements regarding the PC-DVD market and the features and potential growth prospects of certain DVD/MPEG-2 products offered by the Company in this market that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may vary materially due to a number of factors including, but not limited to, the ability of the Company's REALmagic EM8300 DVD/MPEG-2 decoder, the REALmagic Ventura DVD/MPEG-2 playback card, and the REALmagic Hollywood-2 DVD/MPEG-2 playback card to compete with other technologies in these emerging markets, the risk that such products will not gain widespread acceptance or will be rendered obsolete by product offerings of competitors, or by alternative technologies, and the risk that the Company will not meet price or time-to-market estimates due to production, manufacturing, or other delays.