Toshiba And WIDCOMM Team To Develop Embedded And PC Bluetooth Solutions

SAN JOSE, Calif. and San Diego, Calif., December 10, 2002 -- Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC)* has chosen WIDCOMM, Inc., a leading provider of Bluetooth technology software, hardware and design services, to cooperate on the development of embedded and PC Bluetooth solutions. TAEC and WIDCOMM will provide Bluetooth products based on WIDCOMM's BTW and BTE Bluetooth communication software products and Toshiba Corporation's (Toshiba's) Bluetooth single-chip and two-chip solutions. The companies will cooperate to create an embedded Bluetooth solution combining WIDCOMM BTE with Toshiba's Bluetooth single-chip and two-chip solutions. This combination will eliminate the need for an external host processor, thus resulting in system cost reduction. As well, WIDCOMM will integrate custom requirements into the embedded solution to provide TAEC customers with a total solution. "This partnership will leverage Toshiba's leading Bluetooth silicon with WIDCOMM's Windows and embedded Bluetooth software solutions to provide customers unparalleled Bluetooth products and system bundles," said Andreas Malzach, vice president of marketing at WIDCOMM.

"We are pleased to be teaming up with WIDCOMM," said Farhad Mafie, vice president of the ASSP Business Unit at TAEC. "We believe combining WIDCOMM's high-quality software with Toshiba Bluetooth semiconductor products will provide customers with a cost effective solution and faster time-to-market." WIDCOMM's BTE is a complete software solution designed to enable Bluetooth functionality for embedded devices. BTE includes Bluetooth upper stack and all profiles. BTE also includes test tools and the scripts necessary for Bluetooth product integration and preparation for BQB approval. BTW is WIDCOMM's complete communications software that enables Bluetooth wireless technology in PCs. It is fully compliant with Bluetooth specification version 1.1 and supports multiple operating systems, including Windows® 98SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

ABOUT TAEC
Combining quality and flexibility with design engineering expertise, TAEC brings a breadth of advanced, next-generation technologies to its customers. This broad offering includes semiconductors, flash memory-based storage solutions, optical communication devices, displays and rechargeable batteries for the computing, wireless, networking, automotive and digital consumer markets. TAEC is an independent operating company owned by Toshiba America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba, the second largest semiconductor company worldwide in terms of global sales for the year 2001 according to Gartner/Dataquest's Worldwide Semiconductor Market Share Ranking.

Toshiba is a world leader in high-technology products with more than 300 major subsidiaries and affiliates worldwide. For additional company and product information, please visit TAEC's website at chips.toshiba.com. 

ABOUT WIDCOMM
Founded in 1998 in San Diego, WIDCOMM is the leading provider of Bluetooth software, systems, and turnkey designs. WIDCOMM software enables wireless communication technology in the fields of automotive, computing, consumer electronics, semiconductor and telecommunications. WIDCOMM customers and key partners include Wistron Corporation, formerly Acer NeWeb Corporation, Brother, Broadcom, Compaq Corporation, CSR, Infineon Technologies, Murata, OKI, OSK, Philips, Plantronics, Seiko Instruments, Silicon Wave, TDK, Texas Instruments and more. In June 2002, WIDCOMM's CEO Hiep Pham received the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. For more information, please visit www.widcomm.com.

Bluetooth is a trademark owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc., U.S.A. and licensed to WIDCOMM. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. All other trademarks and servicemarks are the property of their respective owners.