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SiPort IC Brings HD Radio(TM) to Microsoft's Zune HD Portable Media Player

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- SiPort Inc., a leading developer of digital terrestrial broadcast receiver ICs for use in consumer electronic devices, announced today that Microsoft's new Zune HD media player uses SiPort's single-chip Digital Broadcast Receiver to incorporate HD Radio capabilities. Utilizing the industry's lowest power HD Radio solution, the Zune HD Radio offers access to a wide range of new HD FM Radio music, news, and sports programming in crystal clear digital sound without any subscription fees.

"SiPort perfected the HD Radio solution for portable devices and made the upgrade from analog FM to HD possible, especially for devices that have tremendous constraints in power, form factor and performance," said Aiman Kabakibo, CEO SiPort. "SiPort worked very closely with Microsoft to address these challenges and enable Zune HD users to enjoy the rich new digital content of HD radio without compromising battery life, form factor, and cost."

HD Radio(TM) is a free over-the-air digital broadcast from radio stations in conjunction with their analog signals. This new technology enables radio stations to simulcast both digital and analog audio within the same channel as well as add new channels and data services. By subdividing the data stream into sub-channels, HD Radio supports many new features including searchable content by genre, pause, rewind, and play functionality, the tagging of a song for future online purchase, and the digital data services.

"HD Radio is a key differentiator for Zune HD that improves Zune's FM radio functionality and adds new sources of music programming and information," said Susan Kevorkian, Program Director with IDC's Digital Marketplace: Mobile Media and Entertainment service. "This is important because we know from our survey research that more than a third of U.S. survey respondents identify FM radio as their preferred source of music, making it by far the most popular source of music overall. Yet a key gating factor to consumer adoption of HD Radio - until now - has been a lack of compelling, competitively-priced devices."

SP1010 Digital Broadcast Receiver

SiPort's SP1010 receiver was fabricated at industry leader TSMC's RF CMOS process to achieve higher performance and best sensitivity per milliwatt than any competitive solutions. The key to this achievement is the deployment of a self-tunable radio technology specifically developed for mobile terrestrial digital radio use. By combining a CMOS RF tuner and a baseband receiver in a compact and low power IC, SiPort enables lowest power, smallest package, excellent performance and low price needed to receive digital audio and digital data services on a variety of portable devices such as MP3 players, personal navigation systems and mobile phones.

Microsoft's Zune HD

The Zune HD is the latest generation of Microsoft Corporation's portable digital media player. Available in 16GB and 32GB capacities, the new player is Microsoft's first to feature HD Radio technology and a touch-screen and adds powerful video playback technology to give users a different way to experience media on the go. Combined with unparalleled PC software and online services, the new Zune HD platform offers a rich and meaningful connection to music, videos, podcasts and more.

About SiPort:

SiPort is a venture backed fabless semiconductor company developing mixed signal RF and digital baseband wireless receiver chips supporting multiple Digital Broadcast Standards. SiPort's innovations in algorithms, architecture, and design are the foundation for breakthrough solutions that enable the delivery of mobile broadcast audio and data services on Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs), automotive navigation systems, Personal Media Players (PMPs) and other consumer electronics platforms.

The SiPort team has an enviable track record designing complex RF and mixed-signal circuits that leapfrog current performance metrics and deliver the best broadcast performance per milliwatt. The team is focused on enabling ubiquitous delivery of mobile digital broadcast media to all handheld media platforms at attractive price points and form factors.

SiPort is privately held and venture funded. Its investors are Intel Capital, LightSpeed Ventures, Morgenthaler Ventures, and New Venture Partners.

For more information about the company and its products please visit www.siport.com

Editor's Note: HD Radio((TM)), HD Radio Ready((TM)) are registered trademarks of iBiquity Digital Corp.

SOURCE SiPort Inc.