FREMONT, California – January 11, 1999 – In a move that heralds wide-scale deployment of THX- grade home theater systems, Cirrus Logic Inc. (NASDAQ:CRUS)today announced that it has licensed THX® home theater DSP algorithms from Lucasfilm Ltd. for upcoming Crystal_ brand audio DSP (digital signal processing) products. Cirrus Logic thus becomes the first semiconductor manufacturer to combine THX post-processing capabilities with economical, embedded certified software for all popular audio DVD decoding standards. For leading-brand mass-market suppliers, this solution will simplify designs, reduce costs, and lower the price point for implementing THX audio technology into A/V Hi-Fi receiver amplifiers that support playback of DVD movies.

As a participant in the Home THX Program – a collaboration between Lucasfilm engineers and leading audio component manufacturers aimed at making the playback of film sound-tracks at home as faithful as possible to the filmmaker's original work – Cirrus Logic is uniquely positioned to accelerate wide-scale deployment of THX.

"We expect many audio manufacturers to design THX-certified products for the next model year," said Monica L. Dashwood, general manager, Lucasfilm THX. "This agreement makes it much easier for the manufacturers to develop THX certified products. As a consequence, there will be greater variety of THX products available at lower price points, benefiting consumers and boosting business for both THX and our licensees."

Cirrus Logic first fueled the home theater juggernaut with its development of single-chip, multi- standard decoders that reduced the price point of today's 5.1 channel receiver/amplifiers, according to Terry Ritchie, Cirrus Logic's marketing director for consumer and professional audio DSPs. "Our mission for the Crystal audio decoder product line now continues, as we help the average consumer afford the highest-quality home movie entertainment, by delivering low-cost DSP solutions that include THX, which consumers increasingly consider the equivalent of a ‘Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval' for sound quality."

Audio Leadership: The Next Step

An acknowledged leader in mixed-signal technology development and circuit integration, Cirrus Logic currently offers the world's most comprehensive line of audio semiconductor products. The company's Crystal audio solutions include a wide range of audio DSPs as well as audio DACs for digital-to-analog conversion, audio ADCs for analog-to-digital conversion, audio CODECs combining multiple DACs and ADCs in one chip, plus a growing portfolio of audio DSP algorithms, or firmware, for the home, the car, portable applications, professional audio equipment, musical instruments, and games.

Cirrus Logic's licensing of THX DSP firmware and upcoming THX certification enables the company to deliver a complete Crystal Digital Sound Processing solution. This solution performs the audio conversion of analog signals to digital data, audio decompression, THX post-processing, and finally data conversion back to analog.

"Cirrus Logic has an impressive track record in DSP algorithms and chip integration expertise, which has helped make it a major player in A/V receiver amplifier LSI circuits," said Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts, an electronics market research firm in Arizona. "Now that it has added THX to Dolby Digital and DTS, the company now offers all the pieces it needs to continue growing in the burgeoning home theater arena."

Poised To Support A Customizable Decoder Solution

With its direct factory coding support for all popular audio algorithms and the reserve programmability of its DSP chips for differentiated algorithms, Cirrus Logic delivers both a uniquely comprehensive set of audio features today, and the capability to add new features as the market evolves -- without requiring expensive, time-consuming third-party assistance. Today's announcement underscores Cirrus Logic's continuing drive to support A/V receiver/amplifier suppliers worldwide as the one-stop shop for the highest quality audio reproduction across the range of present and future products.

Availability

Crystal THX DSP audio firmware is sampling now and is anticipated to be fully certified before March 31, 1999 for production implementations. The licensed THX DSP algorithms by Cirrus Logic include: Re-equalization®, Timbre Matching®, Adaptive Decorrelation®, Bass Management® Electronic Crossover filters, Bass Peak Level Manager®, and Loudspeaker Position Time Synchronization®.

About THX

THX is an exclusive set of proprietary technologies and technical standards established by engineers from Lucasfilm Ltd. THX originated from George Lucas' personal desire to make the playback of film sound-tracks in both movies and homes as faithful as possible to the original film. The Home THX Program singularly represents the only performance standard in the sixty-year history of the Hi-Fi industry. Before any Home THX component can be certified it must first pass a rigorous series of quality and performance tests. Only then can these products feature the THX logo.

Cirrus Logic Inc.

Cirrus Logic is a premier supplier of precision linear circuits and advanced mixed-signal system-level chip solutions, the latter of which demand high-performance mixed-signal processing, embedded DSP, algorithms and firmware. The company's products, sold under its own name and the Crystal product brand, enable high-volume applications in mass storage, communications, consumer electronics and industrial markets.

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Note to editors: Cirrus Logic is a registered trademark of Cirrus Logic Inc. All other product names noted herein may be trademarks of their respective holders.