Trident Announces Its Latest DPTV™SVP That Features the Award-winning DCRe™ Technology
The DCRe™ Technology Delivers Cinema-Realistic
Motion and Still Images for High-Performance LCD, Projection,
Flat CRT and Plasma TVs
Sunnyvale, California. October 29, 2003:
Trident Technologies Inc, a subsidiary of Trident Microsystems,
Inc. (NASDAQ: TRID),
and a world-wide leader in developing cutting-edge digital
TV technology for the consumer digital video marketplace,
today announced its fourth generation single-chip video processor
solution, the DPTV™SVP. The DPTV™SVP video processor
features the award-winning Digital Cinema Reality engine (DCRe™)
technology, which includes an advanced 3-D digital comb color
decoder, pixel-perfect motion adaptive de-interlacing, vertical
and horizontal sharpness enhancement, object-based intelligent
digital noise reduction, dynamic Average Picture Level (APL)
feedback to enhance picture dynamic range, DETI engine providing
color vividness and black and white extensions as well as
LCD overdrive circuitry to improve the LCD panel response
time. Trident¡¯s proprietary DCRe™ technology delivers
vivid cinema-realistic motion and still images for high-performance
flat-panel LCD TVs, Rear-Projection TVs, Flat CRT and Plasma
display TVs applications.
"In contrast to our competitors, it is our strong belief
that we need to aggressively challenge ourselves in perfecting
the video quality while increasing the device integration
level to lower the cost. The new DPTV™SVP chip, powered
by the winning DCRe™ technology, is designed to reach
a superb video quality level that wins the hearts and minds
of top-tier LCD TV OEMs worldwide,"said Dr. Jung-Herng
Chang, the president of the Trident Technologies Inc. Dr.
Chang continued, “The new DCRe™ technology has significantly
raised the bar of video image quality; thus, our competitors,
who are now trailing far behind in video integration technologies
and contending with status quo, will find it difficult to
compete with our new lines of product offerings powered by
DCRe™. The new DPTV™SVP chip is also pin-to-pin
compatible with the previous generation of DPTV™ products.
Our customers can quickly port their existing platforms to
take advantage of the stunning DCRe™ video quality.
We intend to continue strengthening our DCRe™ technology
and use it as the core technology for other highly integrated
solutions in the near future.”
Trident's DPTV™SVP product is sampling to TV OEMs and
has immediately drawn enthusiastic reviews from many TV manufacturers
worldwide. This press release includes positive responses
from DPTV™SVP's early adopter OEMs. However, as more
OEMs are sampling and designing products with DPTV™SVP,
Trident expects more OEMs to announce their products powered
by DPTV™SVP video processor in the near future.
Samsung Electronics Co.,
Ltd.
"The LCD TV segment is the fastest growing sector in
the television market. Both the LCD TV's display size and
the number of models are increasing rapidly," said Mr.
Hyun Suk Kim, vice president of R&D team, LCDTV group,
Visual Display Division at Samsung Electronics. Mr. Kim said,"
We really appreciate Trident’s pin-to-pin compatible
product strategy. We have evaluated DPTV™SVP and are
very pleased with the superb video quality. DPTV™SVP
has combined many high-end television features, such as 3D
comb decoding, motion-adaptive de-interlacing, and vivid image
sharpness control into one single chip; thus enabling Samsung
to manufacture and ship mainstream LCD TVs with high-end video
image quality at cost-effective prices."
Sampo Corporation
"DCRe™ technology makes our vendor selection process
easy because it makes our PDP and LCD TV to show the highest
image quality. The vertical and horizontal sharpness in DPTV™SVP
is really outstanding. With DCRe™, we especially appreciate
the APL brightness auto feedback, and black and white extension
features that extends dynamic video range on both the PDP
and LCD TVs," said Mr. Wen Huei Huang, director of Visual
Display Business Unit at Sampo Optic Electronics Corporation.
"Trident's pixel-perfect edge smoothing capability and
object-based digital noise reduction enhance motion picture
movies to appear sharper and more vivid on LCD TV and PDP.
Sampo will announce several new products based on DPTV™SVP
in the near future."
Changhong (Sichuan Changhong
Electric Co., Ltd.)
"DPTV™SVP’s PAL mode 3D comb video image
is the most beautiful video quality that we have evaluated
so far," said Mr. Enyang Zhang, vice general manager
of the Projection TV group in Changhong. "Furthermore,
DPTV™SVP has included the integrated multi-region PAL
and NTSC 3D comb digital decoder, motion-adaptive deinterlacer
and frame rate converter that enables Changhong to make double-system
(PAL/NTSC) rear-projection TVs very conveniently. Changhong
will announce new products powered by DPTV™SVP very
soon."
Trident's DPTV™SVP integrates an advanced fourth-generation
3-D digital comb video decoder for NTSC, PAL, and SECAM formats.
Trident's 3-D digital video decoder reads consecutive horizontal
scanning lines within each video frame making corrections
as it goes, to ensure maximum picture detail and resolution.
Based on Trident's patented proprietary unified memory architecture
(UMA), DPTV™SVP digital comb video decoder requires
no extra frame buffers for performing 3D comb filtering. This
feature translates into further cost saving for the TV OEMs.
With film-mode recovery, DPTV™SVP correctly detects
the frame rates of incoming video sources, and then dynamically
restores the video source to the original film mode sequences
in play back. The film-mode recovery of DPTV™SVP eliminates
the artifacts found in a typical interlaced signal to progressive
conversion process. The motion adaptive de-interlacing and
edge-smoothing feature of the DPTV™SVP refines the video
display quality. The DPTV™SVP enables a SDTV signal
to display in Picture-in-Picture mode, Picture-Out-Picture
mode, and 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio modes. DPTV™SVP supports
non-linear scaling in the panorama mode to ensure a most natural
picture aspect ratio for the viewers. DPTV™SVP integrated
3-D digital comb video decoder has a built-in VBI circuit
for Closed Captioning and V-chip for parental control that
is EIA 608 compliant.
Furthermore, DPTV™SVP's graphic-based On-Screen Display
provides the most user-friendly and graphic-oriented TV menu
control interface. The video stream can be refreshed in either
the Interlace or the Progressive modes.
DPTV™SVP is currently available to TV OEMs for
sampling. Catering to different needs, Trident’s fourth-generation
DPTV™ family comes in two packages: DPTV™SVP
in 208-pin LQFP is priced at $22 and PanelTV™SVP
in 320-ball BGA package is priced at $25. The pricing is based
on 10,000 unit quantities.
Forward-Looking Information
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including
statements regarding the company's expectations for the DPTV™SVP
market, and designs for the DPTV™SVP product. The forward-looking
statements above are subject to certain risks, and actual
results could vary materially depending on a number of factors.
These risks include, in particular, trends in the television
industry, the results of Trident's sales and shipment activities
to television manufacturers, Trident's ability to timely introduce
new or follow-on products, Trident's success in implementing
planned production, and competitive pressures, including pricing
and competitors' new product introductions. Additional factors
that may affect the Company's business are described in detail
in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
About Trident Microsystems,
Inc.
Trident Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRID – news), with headquarters
in Sunnyvale, California, designs, develops, and markets digital
media for the masses in the form of integrated circuits (ICs)
for CRT TV, LCD TV, PDP TV, HDTV, and digital set-top box.
Trident's products are sold through a network of OEMs, original
design manufacturers, and system integrators worldwide. For
further information about Trident and its products, please
visit the company's web site at http://www.tridentmicro.com
About Samsung
SAMSUNG Electronics Co. Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor,
telecommunication and digital convergence technology. SAMSUNG
Electronics employs approximately 75,000 people in 89 offices
in 47 countries. The company is the world's largest producer
of memory chips, TFT-LCDs, CDMA mobile phones, monitors and
VCRs. SAMSUNG Electronics consists of four main business units:
Digital Media Network Business, Device Solution Network Business,
Telecommunication Network Business and Digital Appliance Network
Business.
About Sampo
Sampo Corporation is Taiwan's top manufacturer of home appliances,
consumer electronics, and telecommunication products since
1936. Sampo Group's products lines include digital TVs, DVDs,
PCs, monitors, CRTs, LCD TVs, and PDPs. With the NT$23 Billion
in revenue in 2003, Sampo is a leader in the Taiwan market
and a world-class OEM supplier. Additional information is
available at http://www.sampo.com.tw/english/
About Changhong
As part of the Changhong Group, the Changhong TV Company has
13000 employees, of whom more than 8000 are engineers, and
creates US $2.5 billion production value per year. It has
established joint-labs with many global companies like Sanken,
Sanyo, Toshiba, Philips, IM and ST, to develop digital AV
products ranging from IC to whole-set. The company is one
of the China's largest TV manufacturers and has marketed Changhong
TV in China under various brand names. For more information,
please visit Changhong's website: http://www.changhong.com
Trident is a registered trademark of Trident Microsystems;
Inc. DPTV™ is a trademark of Trident Microsystems,
Inc. All other company and product names are trademarks and/or
registered trademarks of their respective owners. Features,
pricing, availability, and specifications are subject to change
without notice.
For Press Releases:
Steve Liu
Tel: (408) 991-8800
Email: public_relations@tridentmicro.com
Web site: http://www.tridentmicro.com
For Investor
Relations:
Email: investor@tridentmicro.com
For Technical
Support:
Email: techsupport@tridentmicro.com