TOSHIBA ANNOUNCES ITS NEXT-GENERATION MPACT™ MEDIA PROCESSOR

Mpact2 Combines High-Performance 2D/3D Graphics with Added High-End Multimedia Functionality in a Single-Chip

SAN JOSE, Calif., September 22, 1997 -- Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC) today announced the availability of the Toshiba Mpact 2/6000 media processor. Toshiba is the first Mpact semiconductor partner to offer this new version of the Mpact 2 media processor. Mpact 2 is the silicon portion of the Mpact solution, which includes a single high-bandwidth, highly parallel media processor, Mpact mediaware software modules and the PC's existing X86 or X86 MMX™ CPU.

Designated the TC80310SB, Toshiba's 125MHz Mpact 2 chip is a powerful multimedia engine with the capability to process 6000 millions of operations per second (MOPS). It is ideal for PC motherboards and add-in card solutions for PCI-based bus systems as well as Intel's Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) bus, which offers increased bandwidth. Mpact 2 offers twice the overall processing capacity of the original Mpact/3000 media processor, and several times more performance for 3D graphics.

"Toshiba has once again raised the bar on high-performance multimedia processing," said Mark Nogaki, director of media processor marketing for Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. "The single-chip Mpact 2 offers superior 2D and 3D graphics capabilities and can also handle advanced functions such as full-featured DVD playback and high-end audio."

Mpact2 will be able to accommodate a wide range of multimedia functions including MPEG1 and MPEG2 video, high-end wave table audio, high-performance 2D and 3D graphics acceleration, audio, fax/modem, telephony and videoconferencing. These multimedia features are enabled by Mpact mediaware software from Chromatic Research, Inc.

Superior Graphics Capabilities:
Optimized for 3D speed and performance, Mpact 2 includes a 35-stage 3D pipeline. The 3D pipeline is a powerful 3D rendering engine that complements the programmable 3D operation already occurring in other sections of the processor's architecture for higher level of detail and faster frame rates. A dedicated texture cache provides the 3D rendering engine with ultra-fast access to frequently used textures. Mpact 2 also offers a 500 Million Floating Point Operations Per Second (MFLOPs) set-up engine to define polygon points and color spaces. Trilinear filtering smooths and prevents blockiness on textures. Specular highlighting shows reflection from a light source on an object's interface. It is fully compatible with Microsoft Direct3D™ Application Programming Interface (API).

The Mpact2 solution is also a powerful 2D graphics accelerator for both Windows and DOS applications. It enables fast, flicker-free, high-resolution color modes including 1600x1200x18bit @85mMHz and 1280x1024x24bit @85MHz.

Full DVD Functionality:
In addition to its advanced graphics capabilities, Mpact 2 enables a complete DVD playback solution, which builds on the success of the first-generation Mpact DVD solution. Mpact 2 provides hardware-accelerated DVD without the need for additional hardware.

Unlike specialized graphics chips, Mpact2 enables full DVD functionality. Mpact 2 DVD features include full-screen, 30 frame-per-second (fps) MPEG2 decoding as well as full 5.1-channel Dolby® Digital™ AC-3 audio decoding. SRS TruSurround™ audio technology offers virtual six-speaker sound from two standard stereo speakers. AVsync™ technology provides real-time audio and video synchronization. Mpact mediaware enables a number of DVD acceleration features to ensure fully-compliant DVD functionality. These include IEEE 1180 Inverse Discrete Cosine Transform (IDCT) to ensure crisp picture quality with minimal noise, exact motion compensation for motion free of artifacts, full sub-picture decoding, full DVD navigation implementation, and an approved Content Scrambling System for decryption of copy protected content.

In addition, Mpact 2 DVD features Chromabright' and Chromadjust' post video processing features which allow the user to digitally adjust the DVD picture quality on-the-fly.

"Because the Mpact solution can provide numerous, scaleable high-end multimedia functions within a single subsystem, it is able to offer price/performance advantages over discrete solutions," Nogaki continued. "The versatility of this solution is currently unsurpassed. It's not a question of what Mpact 2 can do, it's a matter of what this solution can't do."

Scaleability and Upgradeability:
Like previous generations of the Mpact media processor, Mpact2 offers the flexibility to adapt to evolving standards and emerging technologies through Mediaware software upgrades. It is designed to work with Microsoft Windows® and will be compatible with next-generation Windows operating systems including Windows NT.

Unique Architecture:
The Mpact media processor was architected by Chromatic Research, Inc. and is co-developed and sold by TAEC. Toshiba's Mpact 2 is based on its advanced 0.35µm drawn CMOS process technology. The breakthrough design of the Mpact media processor combines elements of supercomputing and digital signal processing (DSP) technologies. It includes a very high bandwidth, parallel architecture, very long instruction word (VLIW) and single-instruction/multiple data (SIMD) execution, and vector processing to achieve the blazing speed and tremendous throughput necessary to perform several multimedia functions concurrently, in real time. The Mpact 2 also makes use of two channels of base or concurrent Rambus™ DRAM (RDRAM®) for its multimedia memory. With the use of the concurrent RDRAM, the memory bandwidth of a Mpact 2-based multimedia subsystem will be about 1.3 gigabytes per second. RDRAM acts as the central store for all multimedia data and mediaware modules and provides the necessary bandwidth needed for a single-chip, low pin count solution.

Complete Family of Mpact Processors:
Toshiba offers a complete family of Mpact silicon to meet a wide range of needs. These include the Mpact/3600 and the Mpact R/3600 media processors. Both the Mpact/3600 and Mpact R/3600 media processors offer performance up to 3600 MOPS, and support 600MHz RDRAM for increased memory bandwidth. The Mpact R/3600 media processor adds an integrated RAMDAC for added performance and integration.

Mpact 2 Features and Technical Specifications:

• 6 ALU groups
• 2 Rambus RAC channels with support for base or concurrent RDRAM
• 4KB data cache
• 2KB instruction cache
• 2KB texture cache
• 230MHz RAMDAC

Pricing and Availability:
Samples of Toshiba's Mpact 2 will be available in September 1997 with full production slated for October 1997. Toshiba expects the bill-of-materials cost for a complete 2D/3D plus DVD board to be well under $100, including Mediaware.

TAEC is the North American manufacturing, sales and marketing arm of one of the world's largest suppliers of semiconductors, integrated circuits and electronic components for industrial and consumer applications. The company is the recognized leader in CMOS technology and has one of the broadest IC product lines in the industry. In addition, Toshiba is a leading manufacturer of technologically advanced electron tubes and solid state devices, including color picture tubes, display monitor tubes, liquid crystal displays, medical tubes, rechargeable batteries, microwave components, laser diodes and optical transmission devices.

The Systems IC Division is located at 1060 Rincon Circle, San Jose, CA 95131. For more company information, please visit TAEC's Internet home page at: http://www.toshiba.com/taec. For additional information on the Mpact solution, please see the Mpact home page at http://www.mpact.com/taec.

Company Contact:
Jim Adams
Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc.
(800) 879-4963

Agency Contact:
Lisa Nemec or Judith G. Kahn
Shafer Public Relations
(800) 503-1177 or (714) 553-1177

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Mpact , Avsync, Chromadjust and Chromabright are trademarks of Chromatic Research, Inc. Dolby and AC-3 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Dolby Labs. Rambus and RDRAM are trademarks or registered trademark of Rambus Inc. SRS TruSurround is a trademark of SRS Labs. MMX is a trademark of Intel Corporation. Window 95 and Direct3D are trademarks or registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All other brands or tradenames are the property of their respective holders.