Philips' SACD Delivers Concert Hall Quality to the Home Theater; SAA7893HL Brings Superior Audio Solution to DVD-Video Markets

Business Wire, March 11, 2002

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 11, 2002

Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG) (AEX:PHI) has today launched the SAA7893HL, a single-chip solution which brings Super Audio CD (SACD) to the high-volume consumer market. The solution is a hardware and software combination and is very adaptable, facilitating its design-in by manufacturers of DVD-players. The SAA7893HL chip will allow DVD makers to easily integrate SACD into their DVD-Video players at costs which will open the large volume market, enabling consumers to experience sound quality superior to that of a CD from the comfort of their living room.

Philips is the world leader in laser optics for information storage. It is driving the development of system solutions to bring CD-Audio, DVD-Video, DVD RW recording and SACD to the high volume consumer price points. Co-developed by Philips, the SACD format represents the next level of audio reproduction -- clearly superior to the CD. The SACD uses the latest DSD (Direct Stream Digital) technology to deliver superior sound reproduction to the listener, with the ability to render all the nuances of a live concert performance. This technology closely reproduces original analog waveforms, generating a clearer, more natural sound that is designed to capture the emotional impact of the source material with outstanding realism. Using a sampling frequency of 2.8MHz, 64 times higher than that of CD, Super Audio CD is capable of producing a truly pure, natural sound.

"As a result of breakthroughs in the field of audio coding, Super Audio CD is now accepted as the highest possible audio quality, both in the field of Stereo as well as in Multi-Channel," commented Jeroen Keunen, regional market segment manager of consumer and multimedia with Philips in Asia Pacific. "Large volume player manufacturers have announced that they are developing and shipping SACD DVD-Video players. With the SAA7893HL, SACD will become a cost-efficient `must-have' feature in the DVD-Video market and will bring SACD possibilities to the end-consumer."

"Philips' SACD solutions help us to bring the highest quality music to our demanding listeners," commented Katsumi Shimoguchi, general manager of Marantz. "SACD is based upon the Direct Stream Digital (DSD) technology which directly records and reproduces 1-bit signals, introducing less distortion compared with traditional PCM technology. The Super Audio CD format offers an unmatched capability to reproduce the original source with state-of-the-art fidelity."

Inside the SAA7893, a special high-quality multi-channel bass management system incorporating volume control and a delay function offers home theater support. The SAA7893 can support many different DVD-platforms because of the integrated multiple loader and host interfaces. It enables DVD-player manufacturers to introduce players that can support 6-channel SACD and DVD playback. The 6-channel DAC outputs of the DVD host are routed via the chip, which provides a DAC, switch function between SACD mode and DVD mode. Offering a complete solution, including Annex J level SW API, the SAA7893 also incorporates a full SACD software stack. All compute-intensive operations required for SACD playback and post-processing are executed by the SAA7893HL such that a minimum CPU load remains for the DVD host. All hardware and software interfaces are optimized for easy design-in into various DVD systems.

Samples are available now and volume production commences in Q1 2002. Pricing is based on $10.00 for 10,000 units.

About Philips

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of $28.8 billion (EUR 32.3 billion) in 2001. It is a global leader in color television sets, lighting, electric shavers, medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, and one-chip TV products. Its 189,000 employees in more than 60 countries are active in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics, domestic appliances, components, semiconductors, and medical systems. Philips is quoted on the NYSE (symbol: PHG), London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other stock exchanges. News from Philips is located at www.news.philips.com.