CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY
AND CENTILLIUM TECHNOLOGY
PARTNER TO DEVELOP BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS SOLUTIONS
Companies Plan to Deliver
Accessible Broadband Solutions to Consumers and Small Businesses Through
the Retail Channel
FREMONT, Calif., June 07, 1999 - Centillium Technology Corporation
today announced a wide-ranging strategic partnership with Digicom Systems,
a wholly-owned subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd. (NASDAQ:CREAF),
the world's leading provider of multimedia products and peripherals
for personal computers. Creative plans to develop and market a variety
of broadband access devices such as DSL modems based on Centillium's
advanced chipset technology.
By reducing the "sit and wait" time associated with today's
56k analog modems, these customer premises equipment (CPE) products
will dramatically increase consumer demand for rich multimedia content
and interactive applications such as video conferencing, streaming video,
network gaming, and distance learning.
"Centillium's chipset technology will be a key building block for
Creative as we develop broadband access products," said Raj Johal,
Vice President, Digicom Systems, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary
of Creative. "We believe that broadband will be a key driver for
the multimedia business by providing very high-speed access to the Internet,
corporate Intranets, large file attachments, and interactive applications.
We intend to work with our channel partners to make broadband solutions
accessible to the mass market."
"This relationship with Creative represents a key milestone for
Centillium Technology," said Dori Braun, director of marketing
for CPE products, Centillium Technology. "As one of the most respected
names in the PC peripheral business, Creative has extensive retail and
VAR channels, a powerful sales force and marketing team, and an excellent
customer support infrastructure. In addition, it has key partnerships
with major retail chains, carriers and Network Service Providers. This
will dramatically increase the exposure of Centillium-based access products
to the SOHO and consumer markets."
First Product Demonstrated
at SuperComm99
Digicom
will demonstrate its first product based on a Centillium chipset at
SuperComm99 (Atlanta GA, June 7-11). Digicom Systems will demonstrate
an ADSL G.Lite (G.992.2) modem with a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interfaces
based on the recently announced Centillium Optimizer™ chipset.
"We chose the Centillium Optimizer chipset for three very important
reasons," said Raj Johal. "The first reason was the very low
power consumption, which allowed us design a DSL modem that can operate
in a low-power environment where current is supplied through the USB
bus. The second reason was the very elegant, and programmable architecture
of the Optimizer chipset. The integrated USB controller made it very
easy for us to design a USB modem. The third reason we chose Centillium
was their in-house expertise in analog/mixed signal, digital design,
DSP algorithms, and protocols/system applications."
About Creative
Creative
Technology Ltd. develops, manufactures and markets a wide array of advanced
multimedia solutions for the PC, entertainment, education, music and
productivity tools markets. Creative's products are marketed through
the OEM, systems integrator and retail channels under a variety of trademarks,
including the "Blaster" family name. With the new Sound Blaster®
PCI standard, Creative has produced a solution that utilizes a combination
of hardware and software for near-perfect compatibility with existing
DOS and Windows titles. Creative's corporate headquarters and primary
manufacturing are based in Singapore, with sales, distribution and research
and development carried out through an extensive, global network of
subsidiaries located in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Please
visit our web site at www.creative.com.
About Centillium Technology
Centillium
Technology is a communication solutions company dedicated to delivering
high-speed Internet access to bandwidth-hungry businesses and consumers.
The company designs and markets Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) chipset
solutions for central office equipment, DLC line cards, and customer
premises equipment. Centillium's chipset family is the industry's highest
density, lowest power dissipation solution available to networking equipment
manufacturers today. Additional information is available at http://www.centillium.com.
For sales information, contact Dori Braun at (510) 360-5070.
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© 1999 Centillium
Technology Corp. CopperLite is a trademark of Centillium Technology
Corp. All other products or service names mentioned herein are the property
of their respective owners.
