Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe and Entone Technologies Announce Digital Television Alliance

Companies to Develop Solutions for Digital Media Distribution via ADSL

London, August 30 2000 -- Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe (FME) and Entone Technologies has announced an alliance to develop and promote solutions for digital television distribution via broadband networks. The two companies will collaborate on a broad range of networked digital media delivery initiatives including ATM-based digital television broadcasting, adaptive rate video streaming and methods to protect against unauthorised use and piracy.

Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will develop standards-based products for digital video storage, delivery and management. FME will develop a reference design for a low-cost digital television decoder. The reference design will include an integrated ADSL interface based on KeyWave, the companys single chip ADSL solution. Also featured will be FMEs single chip MPEG decoder, the MB87L2250, a product from its European Multimedia Development Centre. Entone will port its digital television client software to the FME platform. The client software includes ATM signalling support, software interfaces to its StreamLiner media servers for on-demand control and an electronic program guide. The companies will also co-operate to deploy broadband applications on a global basis.

The application of ADSL technology for delivery of true video-on-demand, combined with fast Internet access, finally brings real interactive services to the home." said Dr. Richard Harris, Fujitsu Microelectronics, Vice-President. Consumers will soon enjoy effortless, immediate access to premier entertainment, information and educational resources entirely under their own control."
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Fujitsu Microelectronics has a unique combination of products and skills in ATM, ADSL and MPEG," said Mark Evensen, Entones Chief Executive. Their highly integrated semiconductor solutions enable manufacturers to build affordable decoder solutions."
Protecting Digital Copyright
According to a February 2000 survey by Cahners Instat more than 23 million households will subscribe to video over ADSL by 2005. Todays alliance will contribute to the widespread deployment of these service platforms, by providing products to deliver digital content in a manner that is easy to use for consumers and helps to ensure the protection of licences and copyrights.

The Fujitsu/Entone solution ensures that digital content is never stored or transmitted in clear form. Digital scrambling is applied to all broadcast and stored content and de-scrambling occurs within the FME MPEG decoder.

With the pending proliferation of broadband services globally, broadband service providers will seek solutions that enable them to provide higher value-added services," said Jay Chang, Vice President, Regional Internet Research Technologies at Credit Suisse First Boston in Hong Kong. Platforms that enable them to protect the intellectual properties rights of their content partners should provide a win-win situation for the development of high-end broadband services,"
he added.

Commenting on the threat of digital piracy, David Loiterton, CEO of Internet music retailer GoGo.com said, The entertainment industry is a business whose future depends on strong protection for digital copyrights. After all, composers, artists, agents and publishers deserve compensation for their work and talents."

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About Entone Technologies

Entone Technologies is a global solutions provider for secure broadband multimedia content delivery. The Companys StreamLiner products are carrier-class media servers designed for seamless integration into backbone ATM networks. The privately held company has headquarters in San Jose with offices in Hong Kong and Amsterdam. Its website is http://www.entone.com.

About Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe
Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe is a major supplier of semiconductor products to the European and global market. The company's main business focus is on providing systems solutions to the networking/telecommunications, multimedia, mobile communications and automotive markets. This integrated solutions approach is supported by a broad range of semiconductor devices, including ATM telecommunications ICs, MPEG encoders and decoders, RF devices, PLLs and SAW filters, microcontrollers and microprocessors, FCRAMs and Flash memory. The company is also a leader in colour plasma display panels.

KeyWave is a trademark of Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe GmbH

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