Improv Systems Names Eric Ross of ThinkEquity Partners to Its Board; Top-Producing Sell-Side Semiconductor Analyst to Help Guide Growth of IP Provider

Business Wire, June 16, 2006

BEVERLY, Mass. -- Improv Systems, a leading supplier of DSP-based semiconductor intellectual property (IP), today announced it expanded its board of directors to include industry veteran, Eric Ross, a director of electronics research at ThinkEquity Partners. ThinkEquity Partners is a research-centric institutional investment firm focused on growth sectors in the economy such as technology, healthcare, media and consumer business services.

Currently, the Improv board of directors includes: Don Weeden, Chairman of Weeden Securities Corp; Seiji Miwa, President of eASIC Corporation; Tim McDonald, Managing Director of Weeden & Co; and Cary Ussery, President of Improv.

"As a top analyst for some of the most influential and well-recognized investment banking firms in the world, Eric brings a wealth of practical market experience to the Improv board, complementing the backgrounds and perspectives of the current members," said Ussery. "His track record of insightful market coverage and analysis along with his seasoned view of the industry will be invaluable to Improv's growth as well as its long-term business, product and marketing strategy."

Ross has been covering the semiconductor industry for a range of investment baking firms for the past 10 years. Currently, he is a partner, chief investment strategist and associate director of research at ThinkEquity Partners. Prior to this, he was the director of electronics research at Investec, a global investment bank with 5,500 employees. Before joining Investec, Ross was the top-producing analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners, generating $25 million in revenue in 2001, a down year for the industry. At Weisel he covered semiconductors and semiconductor capital equipment companies.

"I'm looking forward to working with Improv and the rest of its board members on charting the company's future and helping to articulate its value to investors and customers," said Ross. "We see continued strong demand for the types of electronic products that benefit from Improv's innovative DSP technology, and I am particularly excited about their ability to enable designers to easily configure IP for integration into custom SoCs."

Ross started his career as a corporate finance analyst with Oppenheimer's Technology Corporate Finance Group in San Francisco. He then joined Furman Selz as a research associate covering networking equipment and communications semiconductors; he also covered semiconductors and semiconductor capital equipment companies at Bank of America/Montgomery Securities.

In addition to his work as an analyst, Ross is a frequent contributor to on-line sites such as CNBC, Bloomberg, CNNfn, WebFN and print media including the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, Reuters, Associated Press and other industry sources. He received an MS in Chemical Physics from University of California at Berkeley, and a BS in Chemistry from the University of Rochester.

About Improv Systems, Inc.

Improv Systems, Inc. develops and licenses configurable and pre-configured solutions to companies implementing high-peformance, low-power processing applications. The company's Jazz PSA(TM) platforms feature the Jazz DSP and application solution kits for Voice-over-IP, Networking and Multi-Media. Improv's Jazz DSP is a configurable DSP that allows designers to create optimized DSP cores targeted to consumer electronics and telecommunications markets. For more information, please visit http://www.improvsys.com.

Improv, Jazz DSP, and Jazz PSA are registered trademarks or trademarks of Improv Systems, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Product and company names mentioned herein are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

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