PortalPlayer, Inc.--News & Events

CSR And PortalPlayer Bring Wireless Connectivity To Personal Media Players

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Give Consumers Additional Freedom and Flexibility to Download and Enjoy Digital Content

CAMBRIDGE, U.K., Feb. 7, 2006 – CSR PLC (LSE: CSR.L), a wireless solutions provider and leader in Bluetooth technology, and PortalPlayer, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLAY), a leading supplier of semiconductors, firmware and software for personal media players and secondary display-enabled notebook computers, have joined forces to eliminate the inconvenience of wires on personal media players by adding Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. Through seamless integration between PortalPlayer's PP5022 applications processor family and CSR's UniFi Wi-Fi chip and BlueCore Bluetooth chip, consumer electronics and other media device manufacturers will gain a significant time-to-market advantage in delivering wire-free media players. Wi-Fi will simplify the synchronisation of media players with a PC as well as open up entirely new ways to download and stream content from the Internet. Bluetooth will enable wireless stereo headset connectivity.

The two firms will be running a Wi-Fi technology demonstration at the 3GSM World Congress 2006 in Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 13-17.

"CSR's UniFi was designed for this type of application. The company worked long and hard to get both power and coexistence—operating both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in a single design—to levels that make these technologies suitable for portable devices," said Simon Finch, vice president of strategic marketing at CSR. "Working with PortalPlayer to equip these devices with our power-efficient Wi-Fi and Bluetooth solutions will give consumers more flexibility and more options to enjoy digital content whenever and wherever they wish."

"Adding Wi-Fi means the personal media player is no longer a slave to the PC. Consumers will no longer have to dock their media player to change playlists or add new songs, photos and videos," said Scott Tandy, vice president of marketing from PortalPlayer. "We are excited to continue the expansion of our core technology platforms into new and rapidly growing segments like wirelessly connected personal media players."

CSR's UniFi-1 Portable is the world's smallest single-chip solution for standard 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi and has been designed specifically to minimize coexistence design issues. In addition to functioning properly in close proximity to a Bluetooth radio, UniFi provides multi-mode 802.11a, b or g operation, extremely low power consumption, and built-in antenna diversity processing for extended speed and range. CSR's BlueCore4-ROM implements Bluetooth v2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate). In addition to delivering data rates up to three times faster than products using previous versions of Bluetooth, EDR Bluetooth also has a similar effect on power consumption with BlueCore4-powered products lasting up to three times longer.

PortalPlayer personal media player platforms drive many of today's leading digital audio players. The company's PP5022 system-on-chip utilizes dual 32-bit ARM7 microprocessor cores and extensive firmware to provide scaleable performance and maximize battery life for personal media players. This efficient design provides support for today's leading audio encoders, digital-rights-management technologies, and multiple I/O and networking connectivity enhancements. This unique combination of capabilities gives consumers a feature-rich and easy-to-use digital media experience.

CSR and PortalPlayer both have expertise in delivering an optimum balance between battery life and performance in personal media players. This proficiency enabled the two firms to develop a complete semiconductor, firmware and software platform that will enable device manufacturers to create Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-equipped media players that enhance the current user experience.

The current generation of portable media players relies on wired headphones and a cradle, USB or cable connection for synchronizing music from a PC. Adding Wi-Fi and Bluetooth will enable a wide variety of new usage models and possibly new content access services, such as:

These technologies can also be used in other types of devices such as the new Preface-enabled Personal Media Displays (PMD) in notebook computers. In the PMD environment, always on Wi-Fi connectivity and Bluetooth can be used for a wide variety of enhanced productivity applications.

PortalPlayer and CSR will be showing reference designs and demonstrating Wi-Fi connectivity at the 3GSM World Congress next week. The PortalPlayer and CSR platforms are expected to be available in the second half of 2006.

PortalPlayer will be demonstrating its Wi-Fi reference design at 3GSM 2006 in Fira de Barcelona, Feb. 13-16 in Suite HS3.03, Hall 4, Level 3. To make an appointment, please contact Alex Guerra at +1-650-762-2847 (Feb. 7-9), +1-408-507-8334 (Feb. 10-16) or aguerra@arpartners.com.

CSR will be exhibiting at 3GSM 2006 in Hall 1, Stand D72. To make an appointment, contact EML at +44 208 408 8000 or csr@eml.com.

CSR plc is the leading global provider of Bluetooth technology and has developed expertise in other single-chip wireless communication standards such as Wi-Fi (IEEE802.11). CSR offers developed hardware/software solutions for Bluetooth based around BlueCore, a fully integrated 2.4 GHz radio, baseband and microcontroller.

CSR has now launched its fifth generation BlueCore suite and is in volume manufacture of its fourth generation BlueCore devices. BlueCore4 supports the Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) standard, which was ratified at the end of 2004. BlueCore4 remains the only EDR silicon to be shipping in volume today. In November 2004 CSR launched UniFi, the first single chip 802.11a/b/g embedded solution specifically targeting the mobile phone and consumer electronics markets.

BlueCore features in over 50 per cent of all Bluetooth devices shipped and over 60 per cent of all qualified Bluetooth enabled products and modules listed on the Bluetooth website with industry leaders including Nokia, Dell, Panasonic, Sharp, Motorola, IBM, Apple, NEC, Toshiba, RIM and Sony using BlueCore devices in their range of Bluetooth products.

In March 2005, CSR acquired Clarity Technologies Inc., for its Clear Voice Capture (CVC) technology that enhances the audio performance of any voice-based product or system. Applications for CVC include wireless headsets, handsets and automotive hands free systems.

In August 2005, CSR completed the acquisition of UbiNetics' software business, providing a strong R&D team to accelerate its existing software development in Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and UWB. The UbiNetics team gives CSR the capacity to extend its offering to mobile handset customers.

CSR has its headquarters and offices in Cambridge, UK, and offices in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, India, France, Denmark, Sweden and both Texas and Detroit in the USA.

More information about Bluetooth technology can be found on the SIG web site at www.bluetooth.com

PortalPlayer develops semiconductor, firmware and software platforms for portable multimedia products such as personal media players and secondary display enabled notebook computers. PortalPlayer products empower consumers to quickly and easily manage, enjoy and have access to multimedia content and other forms of information. PortalPlayer is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with offices in Kirkland, Wash.; Taipei, Taiwan; and Hyderabad, India.

PortalPlayer, the PortalPlayer logo and Preface are trademarks of PortalPlayer, Inc. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.

Forward-Looking Statements
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the future availability of a combined PortalPlayer and CSR solution for wirelessly enabled personal media players, the adoption of such combined solution by manufacturers, and the performance of such a combined solution, including the power consumption, the timing of the introduction of consumer products that incorporate such a combined solution and the market acceptance of such new consumer products, the potential time to market advantage that either PortalPlayer or CSR will gain with respect to the combined solution and the growth of the wirelessly connected personal media player market, and the anticipated new usage models and new content access services made possible by the combined solution are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "expect," "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will," "designed to," "forward" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results could differ materially from those discussed in these forward-looking statements as a result of risks and uncertainties, including, among others, the acceptance of the combined solution of PortalPlayer and CSR by device manufacturers, the market for consumer electronics, the capabilities and performance of the combined solution, manufacturing and supply risks, the timing and introduction of combined solutions and consumer products that incorporate the combined solution, and other risks and uncertainties detailed in PortalPlayer's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2005 and from time to time in PortalPlayer's SEC filings. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. PortalPlayer does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements.

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CSR And PortalPlayer Bring Wireless Connectivity To Personal Media Players

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