San Diego, CALIF. -May 29, 2001 - and Tokyo, Japan -May 30, 2001 -Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT) and Silicon Wave, Inc. ,a leading designer and provider of RF communication system components, today announced that they will join forces on the development of system-on-chip products using Silicon Wave's high-performance Bluetooth 1.1 qualified Baseband IP.

As part of the agreement, Hitachi has licensed Silicon Wave's Baseband IP and will integrate it into their H8S microcontroller. The resulting single chip baseband processor will feature on chip flash or ROM and together with Silicon Wave's industry leading SiW1502^TM Radio Modem IC can achieve a micro size module of less than 15mm x 20mm. Coupling Hitachi's H8S microcontroller as the baseband controller with Silicon Wave's Radio Modem provides complete Bluetooth wireless solutions to end product and module manufactures.

Bluetooth wireless technology is rapidly becoming the de facto standard for wireless communication between a range of electronic devices such as mobile phones, laptops, PCs, printers and handheld devices. By eliminating the need for cables between inter-connecting devices, individuals can share voice and data using fast and secure local wireless connections. By 2005, Cahners In-Stat forecasts that Bluetooth wireless technology will be used in almost one billion devices, ranging from mobile phones and desktop computers to digital cameras and automobiles.

“This agreement with Silicon Wave allows Hitachi to offer a complete two-chip Bluetooth solution when paired with Silicon Wave's Radio Modem,” said Kazuo Minorikawa, Senior Group Executive, Microcomputer Division, Semiconductor & Integrated Circuits of Hitachi. “The combination of Hitachi's H8S series microcontroller with Silicon Wave's Baseband IP builds value on our existing relationship by enabling high data throughput and low power wireless solutions. Our goal is to provide our customers with market-leading, high-performing, cost-effective solutions and through the integration of Silicon Wave's Bluetooth specification 1.1 qualified rich feature set, we are able to deliver on these expectations.”


“Silicon Wave was the industry's first and today remains the only provider of Bluetooth specification 1.1 compliant radio modem and baseband solutions currently in volume production,” said David Lyon, Chairman & CEO of Silicon Wave. “We are excited that a market leader such as Hitachi has selected our Odyssey Baseband IP licensing program.”

Silicon Wave's Odyssey Baseband IP is a full-featured Bluetooth specification 1.1 compliant product with support for point-to-point, piconet, master/slave switch, flow control, low power modes, and all SCO and ACL data packet types. The Odyssey Software is licensed as portable C-source and operates with a small code footprint requiring only 12Kbytes RAM, 128Kbytes ROM, and less than 5 MIPS load on the host. The Odyssey Baseband IP is 100% digital, and is available as silicon-proven easy-to-synthesize VHDL.

About Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 2000 (ended March 31, 2001) consolidated sales of 8,417 billion yen ($67.9 billion*) The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web site at http://global.hitachi.com
* At an exchange rate of 124 yen to the dollar.

About Silicon Wave, Inc.
Based in San Diego, Silicon Wave designs and produces RF communication system components that consistently deliver superior user experience. Silicon Wave products include baseband, radio modem and software solutions for Bluetooth wireless communications and a complete line of silicon tuners for cable modems and digital set-top boxes. Founded in 1997, the company was the first to deliver a fully qualified, single-chip radio modem for Bluetooth communications and first to achieve Bluetooth version 1.1 qualification for its products. Silicon Wave is an Associate Member of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group. The company's Web site is located at www.siliconwave.com.


The diamond logo design is a trademark and Silicon Wave, the SiW product name prefix, and Odyssey are trademarks of Silicon Wave Inc. Bluetooth is a trademark owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and licensed to Silicon Wave. All other product, service and company names are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.