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March 31, 1998

Hitachi and Sony Reach Agreement on Licensing of SuperH RISC CPU Cores

Pursuant to this agreement, Hitachi will supply Sony with SH-1, SH-3 and SH-DSP CPU cores and related design technology. Sony plans to use the CPU cores in the development, production and marketing of its own system LSIs. Hitachi will also support the production of Sony system LSIs that carry the Hitachi's SuperH CPU cores.

The agreement marks another step in Hitachi's bid to strengthen the status of the SuperH microprocessors as an industry standard in the multimedia market through global partnerships. Licensing and joint-development agreements were concluded earlier with VLSI Technology Inc. of the U.S, SGS-THOMSON Microelectronics of Europe and Seiko Epson Corporation of Japan. These moves provide customers with sophisticated user support system and enable Hitachi to offer a broad range of system solutions.

Sony recognizes the importance of RISC microprocessors to the rapidly growing market for digital AV electronics market, and plans to provide a wide variety of essential CPU cores to meet the needs of its customers.

Sony is a leading producer of AV electronics related IC products such as laser diodes, CCDs, and system LSIs. Sony's decision to license Hitachi's SuperH CPU cores will further enhance its semiconductor operations and strengthen the position of the SuperH cores in the multimedia market.

Furthermore, by integrating Hitachi's high cost- performance SuperH CPU cores with its earlier system technologies, Sony will be able to provide an even wider variety of system solutions for use in digital AV and IT electronics appliances. This will help Sony better respond to the needs of its customers.

About the SuperH RISC architecture

The SuperH family of high-performance, low-power RISC microprocessors is used extensively in cost-sensitive multimedia applications such as mobile information and communication devices, car navigation systems and digital cameras. The SH-3 series includes the leading processors supporting the Windows^(R) CE operating system released by Microsoft Corporation. The recently introduced SH-4 series, featuring the industry's highest-performance embedded processor (360 MIPS at 200 MHz), also supports Windows CE. Hitachi is developing SH-5 and continues to expand the series of SuperH microprocessors to meet the needs of customers; the SuperH architecture already has over 2,000 design wins worldwide.

- SuperH is a trademark of Hitachi, Ltd.
- Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

* At an exchange rate of 124 yen to the dollar.

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