ARC International's ARCsound Audio Subsystem Approved by Dolby Laboratories and Microsoft

ELSTREE, UK. February 1, 2005 – ARC International (LSE: ARK), the world leader in configurable CPU/DSP processor cores and application platforms, today announced that Microsoft Corporation and Dolby Laboratories have each separately approved the ARCsound™ audio subsystem for Microsoft Windows Media Audio decoder and 5.1-channel Dolby Digital consumer decoder technology, respectively. Already shipping to customers, the ARCsound audio subsystem enables system OEMs and semiconductor companies to get to market quickly with an optimized, preconfigured audio platform that eliminates the need for specialized hardware.

"We are very pleased with the tremendous industry response we have to the ARCsound subsystem," said Derek Meyer, vice president of marketing for ARC. "The ARCsound subsystem is one of many ways ARC International is helping customers quickly deploy optimized products for high-growth consumer applications. This key support of Windows Media Audio and Dolby Digital consumer decode illustrate ARC's commitment to provide a pre-verified, comprehensive audio platform that enables our customers with fast time-to-market and less risk."

The ARCsound audio subsystem is a preconfigured, licensable audio platform for use in high volume SoC designs. ARCsound includes state-of-the-art audio codec software, a preconfigured ARC processor with custom audio extensions and a full suite of hardware and software development tools. ARCsound meets stringent quality requirements for cost-sensitive, high-volume markets. A typical ARCsound configuration requires as few as 75,000 gates and consumes as much as 55 percent less system power than comparable solutions.

The ARCsound subsystem's optimized audio software supports a number of codecs, including: