STMICROELECTRONICS AND IMAGINATION TECHNOLOGIES DEBUTS ST 5512/ST40 WITH POWERVR GRAPHICS TECHNOLOGY AND LIBERATE DIGITAL TV NAVIGATOR AT WESTERN SHOW 2000

28th November 2000

Imagination Technologies' PowerVR Technologies division has announced that STMicroelectronics and Liberate are developing next generation set-top-box technology featuring PowerVR technology. This technology, which provides a standardised platform for cutting edge set-top-box applications, debuts today.

Liberate TV Navigator software running on the STi5512/ST40STB1 platform integrating PowerVR technology is being shown at the Western Show 2000 from 28th November to December 1st at the Los Angeles Convention Centre.1 This is the latest stage in the partnership between ST Microelectronics and Imagination Technologies, which will bring the revolutionary graphics technology to ST's interactive consumer electronics customers. The ST demonstration, which can be seen on the Liberate stand, shows PowerVR technology employed in a complete STB solution running Liberate software in an embedded Linux environment.

ST is the market leader in chipsets for Digital TV with over 50% market share. Liberate develops and markets software products that form a universal platform for information appliances. Hardware OEMs, cable operators and ISPs use its software to leverage the power of the Internet. PowerVR Technologies is a leading supplier of advanced graphics technologies to the arcade, console and PC markets.

Says Hossein Yassaie, CEO of Imagination Technologies: "Our product brings new capabilities to set-top-box technology and will allow manufacturers to develop boxes that make possible cutting-edge interactive visual applications for TV viewing, content navigation, 3D gaming and Web browsing."

A next-generation STB running Liberate Enhanced TV software needs a higher level of graphics performance than a basic pay TV receiver. Imagination Technologies supplies the ideal solution with PowerVR's inherent low cost/performance ratio, low power consumption and low memory bandwidth requirements. PowerVR's unique tile based rendering approach and on-chip Z buffer function drastically reduces memory bandwidth leading to a scalable and significantly lower cost graphics solution compared to all traditional 3D approaches and enables exciting new applications for set-top-boxes, including advanced graphics and 3D gaming.

Says Bob Krysiak, General Manager, Micro Core Development Division, STMicroelectronics: "We are working towards a standardised platform for next-generation STBs which will ensure that ST and Liberate's existing mutual customers in the cable and telecommunications sector, and future mutual customers in the satellite and digital terrestrial markets, can rapidly adopt and bring to market a best of breed technology combination. This will facilitate new service offerings in high revenue growth fields such as Personal Video Recording (PVR), Voice-over-IP (VOIP), cross-platform gaming, and personalized content delivery as well as existing revenue-enhancing services such as Video-on-Demand (VOD), Interactive Program Guides (IPG), and interactive advertising. Faster deployment further allows customers to capitalize on first-mover status to achieve a competitive market advantage, increase take rates and reduce churn."

About the STi5512/ST40STB1 Reference Platform
The STi5512/ST40STB1 reference platform being demonstrated at the Western Show emulates a high-end set-top box environment and features advanced graphics, an ST40 CPU  (based on the SuperH, 32-bit SH-4 core from Hitachi) and an interface to allow a hard disk drive to be added for TV time-shifting applications as well as the single STi5512 chip for broad STB functionality including an ST20 32-bit microprocessor, a transport demultiplex block with built-in DVB descrambler, an MPEG2 video decoder with 5 graphics planes, a 2D BLT engine, an MPEG audio decoder, and a digital PAL/NTSC/SECAM encoder. All of the standard interfaces are supported including an integrated IEEE1284 interface and support for IEEE1394 devices.

Editors Notes 1More information about the show can be found at <http://www.cct-assn.org/westernshow>. The Liberate stand is number 3431 in the West Hall.

About STMicroelectronics
STMicroelectronics (formerly SGS-THOMSON Microelectronics) is a global independent semiconductor company, whose shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, on the ParisBourse and on the Milan Stock Exchange. The Company designs, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs) and discrete devices used in a wide variety of microelectronic applications, including telecommunications systems, computer systems, consumer products, automotive products and industrial automation and control systems. In 1999, the Company's net revenues were $5.056 billion and net earnings were $547 million. Further information on ST can be found at www.st.com.

About PowerVR Technologies
PowerVR Technologies - a division of Imagination Technologies - develops and markets the unique PowerVR graphics/video technology. Existing partners licensing the technology include NEC and STMicroelectronics. PowerVR Technologies design wins have included Sega's latest video games console, Dreamcast, the Naomi arcade system, which is used in the majority of new arcade machines worldwide, and numerous PC add-in and OEM customers. More information is available on the PowerVR Technologies web site at www.powervr.com

About Imagination Technologies
Imagination Technologies Group plc is an international company that develops, licenses and supplies market-leading 2D/3D graphics, digital video, audio and speech technologies and products for consumer entertainment and PC Markets. The company has deployed and planned technologies for games consoles, PCs, arcade entertainment machines, digital set-top boxes, in car information/entertainment systems, and mobile devices. Since it was founded in 1985, the company has introduced, via licensing arrangements or directly, a succession of innovative technologies, silicon chips and add-in boards, which have played a major role in the development of multimedia and computer-based entertainment systems. Imagination Technologies Group plc has its corporate headquarters in the United Kingdom and is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange (FTSE:IMG). More information is available on the Imagination Technologies web site at www.imgtec.com <http://www.imgtec.com>.