NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR AND PHOENIX TECHNOLOGIES JOIN FORCES TO PROMOTE INDUSTRY-WIDE ADOPTION OF IEEE 1394

May 24, 1999 - Acting on a strategic partnership formed earlier this year, National Semiconductor Corporation? (NYSE:NSM) and Phoenix Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: PTEC) today announced that Phoenix will license National's IEEE 1394 Open Host Controller Interface core. In line with National's focus on enabling the Information Appliance market, this agreement will help expedite the PC and consumer electronics industries' adoption of IEEE 1394 as a universal interface standard for high-bandwidth connectivity between PCs, peripherals and next-generation consumer electronics devices such as DVD players, digital VCRs, set-top boxes and digital televisions. National's IEEE 1394 OHCI is fully compliant with the OHCI 1.0 and P1394a 1.0 specifications.

Under the agreement, National will supply its IEEE 1394 OHCI core to Phoenix, enabling the company to broaden its portfolio of IEEE 1394 cores. National will leverage its IEEE 1394 technology in future semicustom and standard products, while Phoenix will license its full line of IEEE 1394 IP cores and development tools to manufacturers of next-generation consumer electronics products. The Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association and the National Cable Television Association have already chosen IEEE 1394 as the universal standard for connecting high-definition TVs to digital set-top boxes, so this agreement now enables the consumer electronics industry to build highly-integrated products for these types of consumer video applications.

"National's leadership in the IEEE 1394 Trade Association's Development Group has enabled them to fully understand all aspects of this complex technology," said Barry Hoberman, vice president of Phoenix's Semiconductor IP Group. "By partnering with National, we'll now be able to supply the industry with a complete portfolio of IEEE 1394 cores optimized for the high-bandwidth consumer electronics devices of tomorrow."

The IEEE 1394 OHCI
The IEEE 1394 connection enables high-bandwidth real-time data interfacing between PCs, peripherals and consumer electronics products such as camcorders, VCRs, TVs and digital still cameras. IEEE 1394-compatible products and systems enable users to instantaneously transfer video or still images from a camera or camcorder to a printer, PC, or television with no image degradation. More specifically, the OHCI enables the operating system environment to communicate through a universal software driver, instead of implementing an individualized driver for each particular piece of IEEE 1394 host silicon. This standardized software driver interface not only eases system integration, it also promotes design re-use.

"As we move into the post-PC era, we're going to see a massive influx of high-bandwidth digital information appliances," said Mike Atkin, vice president of National's Semicustom Products division. "We've been working with other industry leaders for over five years to develop a reliable and efficient standard for transmitting large amounts of data between these types of devices, and this licensing agreement will now enable widespread adoption of National's highly-advanced IEEE 1394 OHCI solution."

The IEEE 1394 OHCI core is efficiently implemented in 60K gates (not including FIFOs and scratch pad memory), and compact enough that designers can use it with off-the-shelf firmware to shorten their time-to-market. The core features deep FIFOs to handle time-sensitive isochronous streams and improve throughput. The FIFO memory-receive function is implemented as a single FIFO, rather than partitioned into multiple logical-receive FIFOs, increasing FIFO latency absorption and improving performance.

The core's internal clock runs at 25 MHz, reducing power consumption and making it more suitable for embedded applications. The core has been verified in silicon using PHYs from National, Texas Instruments and IBM, and has also been evaluated by a group of industry-leading computer, software, and consumer electronics companies.

National has been involved with the IEEE 1394 Trade Association's Development Group since the early stages of its formation in 1994, and National's Core Technology Group has played a key role in driving the development of IEEE 1394 technology. These five years of experience and deep involvement have enabled National to develop one of the industry's most efficient and robust IEEE 1394 OHCI cores, and this advanced architecture is what attracted Phoenix to National's technology.

After several years of collaboration and close cooperation, National and Phoenix announced a strategic relationship in January of 1999, allowing the two companies to jointly develop advanced technologies that will accelerate the time-to-deployment for National's products. Today's announcement marks an important stepping stone in National and Phoenix's strategic partnership.

About National Semiconductor Corporation
National Semiconductor provides system-on-a-chip solutions for the information age. Combining real-world analog and state-of the-art digital technology, the company's chips lead many sectors of the personal computer, communications, and consumer markets. With headquarters in Santa Clara, California, National has annual sales of more than $2 billion and 11,000 employees worldwide. Additional company and product information is available on the World Wide Web at www.national.com.