Silicon Image Licenses Digital TV Silicon IP From Sunplus

HSINCHU Science Park, Taiwan — Sunplus Technology Co., Ltd. (TAIEX: 2401, LSE: SUPD) today announced that it signed a cross-licensing agreement with Silicon Image, Inc. whereby Silicon Image receives a non-exclusive license to use and the right to further develop advanced intellectual property (IP), for video processors and digital television (DTV) products to accelerate development of Silicon Image’s PinnaClear™ HDTV and other consumer product lines.

Under the agreement announced today, Silicon Image will obtain a comprehensive license of certain intellectual property from Sunplus. Silicon Image will pay Sunplus $40 million upon delivery and completion of certain milestones. This agreement enables Silicon Image to enhance its development of DTV technology and other consumer product offerings. The new agreement augments and continues to build upon a long-standing relationship between Sunplus and Silicon Image under which the two companies have been working on a joint project to co-develop a line of integrated video processors for the fast growing DTV market.

By strengthening Silicon Image’s portfolio of intellectual property and its engineering workforce and Sunplus transactions are expected to enhance and accelerate Silicon Image’s ability to provide top-tier consumer electronics customers with a full line of integrated circuits, ranging from industry-leading discrete High-Definition Multimedia Interface™ (HDMI™) chips, new integrated front-end TV input processors and fully-integrated system-on-a-chip (SoC) DTV products that advance a new architecture for premium HD content access throughout the home and mobile environment.

“This transaction, together with the sci-worx acquisition, represents an important step forward in our video integration and connectivity strategy,” said Steve Tirado, president and CEO of Silicon Image. “The IP from Sunplus provides several hundred man-years of proven intellectual property development in the home entertainment marketplace. With a larger and stronger engineering workforce drawing on the combined IP of three leaders in digital media technology, we expect to be well positioned for long-term growth through more innovative and integrated products for the consumer electronics market.”

“The licensing agreement shows that Sunplus is to moving to be global player by working with international leading partners like Silicon Image,” said Chou-Chye Huang, the Chairman and CEO of Sunplus, “and it reveals Sunplus’ leading position on DTV IPs & technology. Digital TV will be one of the most important platforms on home entertainment applications for there are more and more new electronic consumer devices connecting to DTV. Sunplus Technology, being the parent company of Sunplus Group, will keep developing advanced multimedia IPs and home entertainment applications to enable the digital and joyful life.