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RF Magic Announces the World's Most Advanced Tuner IC for International Digital Terrestrial Television Markets

Single-Chip Silicon Tuner Delivers High Performance and Small Size for DVB-T Receivers Used Throughout Europe, Middle East and Asia

RF Magic, Inc., a provider of Radio Frequency (RF) Systems on a Chip integrated circuits (ICs) for extreme broadband consumer applications, today announced the availability of the company's latest silicon tuner, the RF4000 DVB-T silicon tuner for digital terrestrial television applications featuring its innovative AdaptiveTune(TM) technology.

The IC was developed specifically for digital terrestrial television applications that comply with the international DVB-T standard popular in Europe, Asia, Australia and South Africa. Unlike in the U.S. where subscription cable and satellite TV service are prevalent, international markets are served by government-subsidized terrestrial television that is often broadcast via a grid of towers and can be reliably received using inconspicuous indoor antennas. Consumers can purchase DVB-T receivers in both new digital ready televisions or in set top boxes to capture these increasingly digital "free-to-air" signals.

"Terrestrial TV is very popular with consumers in international markets and demand for DVB-T digital terrestrial receivers is growing rapidly, representing a tremendous market opportunity for the RF4000," said Rick Beale, Vice President, Marketing and Sales for RF Magic. "We've been promoting our solution to leading OEMs world-wide for the past six months and expect to begin volume production shipments in September."

Employing RF Magic's RF Systems on a Chip technology, the RF4000 is the most highly integrated, most reliable tuner available today. The single chip contains all front-end functions and requires no external SAW filters or amplifiers. In addition, the AdaptiveTune(TM) feature allows key characteristics of the tuner to be programmed via software to optimize front-end performance for different environmental conditions.

The compact, highly integrated IC simplifies customer's RF system design and enables sleeker, more stylish receiver designs with a footprint one-fourth the size of comparable discrete tuners. NorDig compliant front-end solutions with the RF4000 can be implemented on two-layer, surface mount printed circuit boards for manufacturing simplicity and cost effectiveness.

In addition to low cost single tuner receivers, the small physical footprint and robust design enable efficient dual tuner implementations directly on the main board for the emerging PVR (personal video recorder) "watch and record" applications.

"A high degree of integration, high performance and small footprint are very important to OEMs who manufacture for the growing DVB-T applications markets," noted IdaRose Sylvester, a Senior Research Analyst in IDC's Semiconductor Group. "Innovations in silicon are enabling terrestrial set-top box OEMs to move away from existing metal can tuner solutions, enabling compelling, fully digital solutions."

The RF4000 ultra-compact TV tuner is now being sampled by leading Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) for DVB-T applications and RF Magic anticipates extending the product line for the North American ATSC standard in the near future. Pricing for the RF4000 will be less than $5.00 in small quantities. For additional information on the RF4000, please link to http://www.rfmagic.com/rf4000.asp.

About RF Magic, Inc.

RF Magic, Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company on the forefront of designing complex, highly integrated broadband radio frequency (RF) systems on a chip integrated circuits (ICs) targeting high volume, high growth consumer markets, including consumer broadband and digital broadcast entertainment. RF Magic applies RF integrated circuit (IC) design, broadband RF systems, and digital communications systems expertise to the development of a diversified portfolio of patented RF IC solutions. The company headquarters is located in San Diego, CA, with a design center and sales office in Nice, France. Further information on RF Magic can be found at www.rfmagic.com.

RF Magic, AdaptiveTune and the RF Magic logo are trademarks of RF Magic, Inc.

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