Oak Technology Licenses Invision Interactive's CyberSound Wavetable Synthesis Technology; Allows Oak To Provide OEMs With Low Cost, Single-Chip Digital Audio Solution

Business Wire, July 23, 1996

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 23, 1996--Oak Technology (NASDAQ: OAKT), a leading provider of high-performance multimedia semiconductors and related software, today announced that it has licensed CyberSound, InVision Interactive's software-based wavetable synthesis technology for DSP and host-based signal processing applications. The host-based version of this technology provides a General MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) compliant music synthesizer for game and music applications without the need for a separate sound card with its own dedicated memory, thus reducing costs. Additionally, it is possible to dynamically change the sound sample set and offer a wider variety of sounds other than those provided in the General MIDI sound set.

Sound generation is a required element of multimedia PCs. Wavetable synthesis technology creates sounds by playing sound samples stored in memory. While the quality of the samples is important, the manipulation of those samples by the synthesis algorithm is also important to create realistic sounds from a limited sample set of sounds. A larger sample set can provide more realism, but also requires much more memory, and therefore, increases system cost. A host-based implementation reduces the memory required to store the sample set, allowing more system memory to be allocated for other purposes and resulting in improved system performance and lower system cost. For real instruments such as piano or violin, this balance between memory and sample set size is very important. InVision's wavetable synthesis technology is able to produce quality sounds from a limited sample set. "InVision's wavetable synthesis technology combined with Oak's recently announced OTI-611 digital audio accelerator with host-based V.34 fax/modem enables us to provide OEMs with a low-cost, complete, single-chip digital audio solution," said Ken Boyce, director of Oak Technology's Audio/Communications Business Unit.

"Major companies such as Compaq Computer have verified the value of InVision's software-based wavetable synthesis technology and we are delighted to have Oak as an OEM distribution partner," stated Mitchell Tuchman, InVision's vice president of marketing.

About Oak

Founded in 1987, Oak Technology Inc. designs, develops and markets high-performance multimedia semiconductors and related software to original equipment manufacturers worldwide who serve the PC, PC peripheral, consumer electronics, digital video and digital office equipment markets. Oak has subsidiaries in Japan (Oak Technology K.K.), Taiwan (Oak Technology Taiwan) and Andover, Massachusetts (Pixel Magic). The Company completed its initial public offering in February 1995 and a follow-on equity offering in May 1995. Additional information about Oak Technology and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at www.oaktech.com.

About InVision

InVision Interactive, Inc. provides CyberSound, the first software audio architecture for leading PC platforms, and a complete line of audio software applications that utilize its design. InVision is also recognized as the leading developer of sound libraries used for motion pictures, TV, computer games, videos, and by professional recording/performing artists. Founded in 1990, InVision is a privately held company based in Palo Alto, California. For more information, call 1-800-468-5530 or visit InVision's home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.cybersound.com.

Oak Technology and the Oak logo are registered trademarks of Oak Technology, Inc. All other registered trademarks and trademarks belong to their respective holders.

CONTACT: Oak Technology, Sunnyvale

Scott Alberts, 408/737-0888

or

Miller/Shandwick Technologies, Mountain View

Jeff Lettes/Staci Sheppard, 415/962-9550