Sigma Designs, (Nasdaq: SIGM), a leader in digital media processing for consumer
appliances, today announced that several new IP video appliances from multiple vendors, based on Sigma's decoder chips, will enter the market over the next six months. IP video appliances represent a relatively new class of products designed to support IP video streaming, which is set to take off over the next year as more devices and larger manufacturers enter the market. Two categories of devices exist, the first being Broadband Media Devices, also known as IP set-top boxes. These devices support Telco video services over DSL or fiber, the deployment of which has
been increasing steadily this year, especially in Asia. Analysts say that three-quarters of the region's broadband connections use digital subscriber line (DSL) technology to transform telephone lines into high-speed data tunnels. There are a variety of these products already on the market, including the Samsung set-top box, being used for deployment by Softbank in Japan.

A new category, Digital Media Adapters (also called Local Media Devices), supports local distribution of video/audio content to television sets throughout the home using wired or wireless connectivity. Exemplary of this category of devices, Pinnacle Systems announced in September, the debut of the Pinnacle ShowCenter, a digital media management and playback solution based on Sigma's EM8550 media processor. Beginning this fall, Pinnacle will expand its presence in the U.S. market with heavy distribution in retail chains across the nation.

"Pinnacle ShowCenter makes it easy for consumers to access all the digital music, photos and video stored on their PC with a click of a remote," said William Chien, director of product marketing for Pinnacle Systems. "The Sigma EM8550 enables ShowCenter to support a wide variety of video formats natively, including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and DivX(TM). Files of other formats are conveniently converted
by the ShowCenter application for the end user."

Several companies from Asia are also preparing new IP video appliances to enter the market beginning this fall. The companies include Lenovo Consume PC (formerly Legend), Vertex Link, Beijing Golden Yuxing Electronics and Technology Co., Ltd., and Shenzhen Tsinghua Tongfang. In the next six months, an increasing number of
larger players in the industry are gearing up to provide both categories of IP video solutions to the global mass market. Sigma Designs is the dominant supplier of media processors for IP video appliances, and will be expanding its product-line during this period to add increased CPU performance and additional hardware features. "Lenovo's products provide our customers with enhanced entertainment
benefits and advanced features," said Jiang Shan, senior manager, Lenovo Consume PC. "We continue to be successful, by working with companies like Sigma, who provide real, complete solutions. This in turn presents our valued customers with a seamless digital experience."

"Our customers recognize the benefits of using our MediaWiz product," said Goro Morita, president and CEO of Vertex Link Corporation, Japan. "A key reason why our MediaWiz product is thriving is due to our use of Sigma's EM8551 chip. Sigma's chip provides support for complete digital video, audio, and photo formats, including an MPEG-4 solution, which we needed, as well as a low cost single chip SoC advantage that pushed us ahead of the competition." The types of architecture and features in these new boxes, powered by Sigma decoder chips, include highly-integrated solutions for MPEG-4 and MPEG-2. Other unique features include digital and component video outputs with optional scaling up to HDTV resolution, video over IP,
support for DVI/HDCP or LCD displays and support for external encoders and networking chips. A wide variety of media types are supported, accessible through a powerful navigation engine.

"Working with Sigma's IP video solutions is a natural progression of our business," said Zhu Jiang, VP, Beijing Golden Yuxing Electronics and Technology Co., Ltd. "Our Broadband Entertainment Player utilizes Sigma's EM8550 chip, by providing support for MPEG-4 and a single chip SoC advantage for our customers. Sigma recognizes
market trends and seizes on them to provide companies like ourselves the competitive edge and strong features which enable us to share with our consumer market."

There is a strong trend toward new CODECS in the entertainment industry, providing better compression efficiency and enabling standard and high definition content to be streamed on networks where it was previously not possible. For over a year, MPEG-4 has provided an incremental improvement, which has been used in several locations to enhance services. More recently, there is growing demand for Windows Media Video (WMV), which represents a further improvement in efficiency and offers unification with the PC and Internet standards. "As the demand for new CODECs and advanced features in the consumer market continues to increase for IP video appliances, manufacturers turn to Sigma for solid expertise and cost-effective features," said Ken Lowe, VP of strategic marketing of Sigma Designs. "At this point, we are seeing increasing momentum toward consumer products that can deliver high quality video-on-demand over DSL as well as distribute local content throughout the home."

About Pinnacle Systems, Inc.

Pinnacle Systems provides broadcasters and consumers with cutting-edge digital media creation, storage, and play-back solutions for use at Home, in the Studio and on the Air. Pinnacle Systems' award winning digital media solutions are in use around the world for broadcast, video and audio editing, DVD and CDR authoring and on the Internet. A recognized industry leader, the company has received nine prestigious Emmy Awards for its technical innovations and carries this commitment throughout all of its product lines. Pinnacle Systems may be reached at (650) 526-1600 or at www.pinnaclesys.com/.

About Lenovo Consume PC (formerly Legend)

Lenovo is the largest IT corporation in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). Its own brand PC has been the country's best-selling PC since 1997 and had a market share of about 27.3 percent in 2002 according to International Data Corporation. Lenovo is also the number one PC brand in the Asia Pacific market (excluding Japan) with a
market share of 12.4 percent. Lenovo's business performance has proved that the group has deep insight into the PRC IT market and clear grasp of user needs. Lenovo also manufactures handheld devices, mobile handsets, motherboard and provides IT consulting services. Lenovo was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1994 and is a constituent stock of the Hang Seng Index. Its American Depositary Receipts are
also being traded in the United States. For more information on Lenovo, please refer to the investor website http://www.lenovo.com/.

About Vertex Link, Inc.

Vertex Link provides high value products and services using a unique development of technology, marketing, sales, as well as strong partnerships with Japanese companies in developing best-in-class technologies within the IT and consumer fields. The company provides synergy and solutions based on (1) network security solutions for web filtering and content security management, (2) VOD servers, digital
video systems and home entertainment equipment with DVD, MPEG and DivX
technologies, (3) unique PC assembly parts, (4) server software applying Java and Linux technologies. For more information please visit the company's website at http://www.vertexlink.co.jp/.

About Beijing Golden Yuxing Electronics and Technology Co., Ltd.

Yuxing is a Chinese enterprise in the information electrical appliance sector. The primary operation of the company is centered in China's mainland, marketing Yuxing Brand information appliances for education. Yuxing multimedia set-top boxes currently occupy more than 90 percent of the local market. The key products include multimedia set-top boxes (i.e. Education VCDs), popular computers and software
kits. By focusing on China's future education market and drawing support from the developing technology of IT, Yuxing will be trying to make more contributions to the raise the nations education level by changing the traditional education models and methods. For more information please visit the company's website at
http://www.yu-xing.com/touzi/01.htm/.

About Shenzhen Tsinghua Tongfang Co., Ltd.

Shenzhen Tsinghua Tongfang is a subsidiary of Tsinghua Tongfang Co., Ltd, a renowned high-tech company of China. The company was established on July 28, 2000, with its place of business located in the High and New-Technology Industrial Park of Nanshan District, Shenzhen and the registered capital of RMB120 million. It is among the high-tech enterprises with autonomous intellectual properties that are
specially supported by the Chinese government. For more information please visit the company's website at http://www.szthtf.com/doce/aboutus.asp/.

About Sigma Designs, Inc.

Sigma Designs (Nasdaq: SIGM) specializes in silicon-based MPEG decoding for streaming video, progressive DVD playback, and advanced digital set-top boxes. The company's award-winning REALmagic(R) Video Streaming Technology is used in both commercial and consumer applications providing highly integrated solutions for high-quality decoding of MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4. Headquartered in Milpitas,
Calif., the company also has sales offices in China, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. For more information, please visit the company's web site at www.sigmadesigns.com/ 

REALmagic and Sigma Designs are registered trademarks of Sigma Designs. All other products and companies referred to herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
 

About Secrets Register

Terms and Conditions of Use