Trident Microsystems to Provide Graphics Chip for New IBM ThinkPad 770; Cyber9397 Provides 3D Graphics For Top-Of-The-Line Notebook

Business Wire, Sept 9, 1997

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 9, 1997--Trident Microsystems, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:TRID) today announced that IBM Corp. of Armonk, N.Y., had selected the Cyber9397 graphics chip for IBM's ThinkPad 770 model notebook computer, recently named Editor's Choice by PC Magazine.

The Cyber9397, with its on-chip setup engine, advanced graphics, dual view, TV-Out, videoconferencing, and low power consumption, provides all the advanced graphics features that mobile users demand from their notebook computers.

"IBM is committed to bringing state-of-the-art multimedia capability to our notebook users," said Adalio Sanchez, vice president of mobile development for IBM. "As a long-standing provider of advanced graphics for the PC market, Trident understands well how to provide the multimedia graphics bang for the CPU power buck."

"The Cyber9397 embodies the best features from our desktop devices. Today we are the fastest company in this business to provide desktop multimedia capability on portable chips," said Frank Lin, president and CEO of Trident. "We are extremely pleased that Trident devices once again are chosen for the multimedia graphics solution of the IBM ThinkPad notebook product line. Over the years IBM has been an excellent customer and partner for us. We, at Trident, are committed to making IBM notebooks successful in the marketplace."

The Cyber9397 is the fastest 3D graphics chip for the notebook market in production today, according to a recent Winbench test conducted by Mercury Research. The high-performance 3D graphics is due in part to the on-chip setup engine that Trident pioneered on desktop chips. The single-cycle 3D graphics engine can perform premium 3D functions at more than 500k triangles per second. The 3D engine off-loads the CPU of 50% of its 3D tasks, enabling the ThinkPad's CPU to concentrate on other processing. The 3D engine, integrated with a triangle setup engine, provides Gouraud shading, texture mapping, alpha blending, Z-buffering, fogging and anti-aliasing, resulting in arcade-quality graphics on notebook PCs.

Thanks to its advanced video handling, the Cyber9397 dual-view/simultaneous display and dual video windows for videoconferencing permit simultaneous and dual-view displays in 24-bit color with mixed video/graphics on a flat panel and a CRT, or on a flat panel and a TV. The Cyber9397 allows the display shown on the LCD and the CRT or TV to be run at different refresh rates, different resolutions and different color depths. For example, while the slides of a presentation are being projected onto a screen, the presenter can read notes off his/her notebook.

The Cyber9397's TV-out feature supports high-quality, flicker-free TV display to connect the ThinkPad 770 to any PAL or NTSC standard television. This feature is particularly useful for presentations to large audiences where overhead projectors are not available, for reviewing data or playing games in the privacy of a hotel room. Trident's ClearTV (tm) output converts the non-interlaced VGA data to interlaced TV display with a 3-line flicker-free buffer which smoothes adjacent lines in the display. This provides the best available TV display on the market.

High-performance 3D notebooks are notorious power hogs due to their speed, complex graphics and power-grabbing internal peripherals. The Cyber9397 provides flexible and extensive mobile power management capabilities. The chip operates at 3.3V with independent power planes for different functions in the chip. This ensures that each function can be individually powered down when not in use. With an appropriate configuration, a suitable balance can be achieved between graphics power consumption and performance by adjusting the frame buffer size, and speed. This ensures that executives on the move will have enough battery life to complete their daily tasks.

Trident Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRID), with headquarters in Mountain View, California, designs, develops and markets graphics controllers and multimedia integrated circuits for PCs. 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 consult our web site: http://www.tridentmicro.com -0-

Note to Editors: Trident is a registered trademark of Trident Microsystems, Inc. ClearTV and Cyber9397 are trademarks of Trident Microsystems, Inc. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Trident Microsystems, Inc.

Peter Brown, 415/943 3761

pbrown@tridmicr.com

WEB: tridentmicro.com