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NEC Electronics America Announces AVStream Driver Kit for Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004

Posted on: Monday, 3 May 2004, 06:00 CDT

SEATTLE, Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, May 3

/PRNewswire/ -- NEC Electronics America, Inc. announced today the availability of an AVStream device driver kit for the Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 operating system (OS). This driver kit is developed for use with NEC Electronics' family of MPEG2 reference designs, including the uPD61151 MPEG2 encoder and uPD64011 video decoder with three-dimensional luminance/chrominance (3DYC) separator, as well as the recently announced uPD61153 encoder that integrates the MPEG2 and 3DYC technologies onto a single chip. The driver kit includes the source code for the AVStream driver, enabling customers to accelerate their product development by reducing software development resources to better meet time-to-market needs. The 3DYC technology suppresses the cross-chrominance and/or cross-luminance effects seen in conventional 2DYC separation and enables high-quality video capture while defining a new level of video quality for the home PC and Media Center markets.

NEC Electronics' AVStream device driver will be demonstrated in the company booth (#402) at Microsoft Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), running from May 3-May 7 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle.

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 is available pre-installed on Media Center PCs and delivers advanced computing plus easy-to-use integrated digital entertainment including live and recorded radio and television broadcasts, movies, music and photos. The customer's digital media resides all in one place accessible either on a PC monitor or television display using a single remote control device.

"With the increasing convergence of applications in the digital consumer market, consumers are looking for the ability to combine PC and digital entertainment applications into one device that can be accessed anywhere throughout the home," said Dan Takise, director, system LSI business unit, digital consumer segment, NEC Electronics America. "The Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 OS meets that demand, offering access to a wide range of entertainment such as music, television, photos and digital video. We are excited to be working with Microsoft to provide high-quality A/V hardware technology for the platform."

"Consumers are demanding superior video quality in their TV viewing experiences," said Sriram Rajagopalan, Product Unit Manager, TV Group, eHome division at Microsoft Corp. "NEC Electronics' MPEG encoder solution with 3DYC technology will enable OEMs to quickly and easily bring to market high-quality Media Center PCs to meet this demand."

Availability and Pricing

The AVStream device driver kit for NEC Electronics' family of MPEG2 reference designs is currently available (http://www.necelam.com/digitalav/index.php?Subject=Mediacenter). Pricing is dependent on usage and licensing restrictions. Pricing and availability are subject to change.

About NEC Electronics Digital Audio/Visual Solutions

NEC Electronics offers a broad range of system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for digital A/V products. For digital set-top box applications, NEC Electronics offers both the cost-effective uPD61120 family for basic set-top boxes, which incorporates dual 32-bit MIPS(R) processor cores, and the high-performance uPD61130 family, which incorporates a MIPS processor core, a built-in IDE (integrated device electronics) interface and a PCI interface for personal video recorder (PVR) and dual-MPEG2 stream decoding. NEC Electronics' uPD61151 and uPD61152 single-chip LSI MPEG2 products integrate an audio encoder, video encoder and 32-bit V850(TM) microcontroller to enable high-quality, low-power digital audio and video encoding. The company's IEEE-based uPD72891 and uPD72893 LSI chips provide a high-speed serial bus with an embedded digital video codec, making them ideal for receiving and transmitting multimedia data between multiple devices. More information can be found at http://www.necelam.com/digitalAV.

NEC Electronics Digital AV Products for Microsoft Windows Media Center

NEC Electronics offers a range of silicon solutions for Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition applications. Field-proven MPEG2 encoders accelerate the development of TV tuners/MPEG cards with high-quality A/V compression capabilities, while 3DYC separators and video decoders achieve high picture quality by providing a three-dimensional comb filter to separate the luminance/chrominance data for analog televisions. In addition, NEC Electronics provides complete reference designs, which enable fast time to market for ODMs/OEMs.

About Windows XP Media Center Edition

Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition evolves the home PC with easy-to-use integrated digital entertainment that consumers can enjoy when and how they want. It combines the functionality of traditional PC applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel with the ability to enjoy music, television, personal video recording, pictures, digital video and DVD with remote-control access. Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 features the quality and compression of Windows Media 9 Series, which helps users create, manage and enjoy more high-quality digital music and video than before.

About NEC Electronics America, Inc.

NEC Electronics America, Inc., headquartered in Santa Clara, California, is a wholly owned subsidiary of NEC Electronics Corporation , a leading provider of semiconductor products encompassing advanced technology solutions for the broadband and communications markets; system solutions for the mobile, PC, automotive and digital consumer markets; and platform solutions for a wide range of customer applications. NEC Electronics America offers a local manufacturing facility in Roseville, California, and the global manufacturing capabilities of its parent company. NEC Electronics America is also the North American marketing and sales channel, specializing in industrial applications, for active-matrix LCDs from NEC LCD Technologies, Ltd., a global leader in innovative display technologies. More information about the products offered by NEC Electronics America, Inc. can be found at http://www.necelam.com/.

NOTE: NEC Electronics America and V850 are either trademarks or registered trademarks of NEC Electronics Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. MIPS is a registered trademark of MIPS Technologies, Inc. All other names mentioned herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their owners.

NEC Electronics America

CONTACT: Denise Viereck Garibaldi of NEC Electronics America, Inc.,+1-408-588-6620, or denise_garibaldi@necelam.com; or Bob Nelson of PorterNovelli, +1-408-369-1500 ext. 624, or bob.nelson@porternovelli.com, for NECElectronics America, Inc.

Web site: http://www.necel.com/

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