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Frontier Silicon technology sweeps the board for DAB products in What Hi-Fi? awards

London, 22nd October 2004: All three of the winning DAB digital radio products in the What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision Awards 2004 announced yesterday are enabled by DAB system modules provided by Frontier Silicon and powered by the company’s Chorus FS1010 programmable multimedia processor. The PURE Digital EVOKE 1XT – the latest version of EVOKE-1, the biggest selling DAB digital radio (source GfK) – was awarded the best portable radio, while the Sony SDB900 tuner was the product of the year in the tuners category, and the Goodmans 1104 was winner of the best hi-fi microsystem under £150. All the radios are among more than 50 different products currently available based on Frontier Silicon’s Chorus DAB processor.

Anthony Sethill, chief executive officer of Frontier Silicon commented, "These latest awards for Goodmans, PURE Digital and Sony radios based on our Chorus DAB chip is excellent news. It demonstrates the strength of our experience and capability in delivering a technology solution that enables top consumer brands to produce award-winning products. Frontier Silicon’s modules now account for over 60 percent of the DAB digital radios in the shops, in volume terms. "

Kevin Dale, president of PURE Digital, explained his company’s choice of technology for its’ award winning radio, "Frontier Silicon provides the most economical solution, providing a single-chip baseband rather than the two-chip approach of other solutions. On top of this, it offers the lowest power and highest sensitivity available; hence low cost, low system power and the ability to source the complete hardware module with software make it the ideal choice for our market leading portable DAB radios. "

The most recent data from market research firm GfK refers to UK sales up to June/July 2004 and indicates that the number one selling kitchen, bedside, personal, portable and rewind radios as well as tuners are all PURE Digital products, which are also based on Frontier Silicon’s ICs.

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Editor's notes: About Frontier Silicon

Frontier Silicon, winner of the PricewaterhouseCoopers hottest technology company of 2004 award, is at the forefront of the digital revolution with a range of semiconductor solutions for digital TV, digital radio and other emerging consumer multimedia products. As a fabless semiconductor business, Frontier Silicon’s core products include complete DAB modules, DVB-T solutions and the underlying system-on-chip (SoC) devices. Key customers for these products include consumer electronic, automotive entertainment and PDA/mobile phone manufacturers. In digital radio (DAB), the company’s chips are found in the world’s leading brands including Bush, Cambridge Audio, Goodmans, Grundig, Hitachi, Ministry of Sound, Philips, PURE Digital, Roberts Radio, Sharp, Sony and TEAC.