ARC Introduces the World's First "Sonic Focus-Ready" Audio Subsystem, Setting New Standards for Sound Fidelity And Energy Efficiency

SAN JOSE, Calif., and ST. ALBANS, England, March 11, 2008 - ARC International (LSE: ARK) today introduced the newest addition to its ARC® Sound Subsystem family, the ARC Sound 210E.  This fully programmable, licensable solution enables system-on-chip (SoC) designers to build devices that achieve high-quality audio using a very low power budget.  As with all ARC Subsystem products, the AS 210E is multi-standard and supports a wide range of popular digital audio formats. The ARC Sound 210E Subsystem also supports the award-winning Sonic Focus audio post-processing software, and incorporates the recently introduced ARC Energy PRO™ power management technology.  This news release is part of the introduction of ARC's new low power Energy PRO cores that also was announced today.  Visit www.arc.com for more information.
 
Targeting the Portable Multimedia Market

The AS 210E Subsystem is ideal for the feature-rich portable multimedia player (PMP) market, which is one of the fastest growing segments of the consumer electronics industry.  According to Semico Research, over the next five years this market will achieve a compound annual growth rate of 25 percent and have more than 150 million annual unit shipments.  Supporting and providing innovative technology for chips targeting PMPs, such as Sonic Focus and Energy PRO™, ARC intends to increase its growing share of this market by addressing two of the major issues of PMP devices - suboptimal audio quality and limited play time.

Unique Capability 

The new AS 210E Subsystem's advanced Energy PRO™ power management techniques reduce power consumption by turning off the subsystem when no activity is registered. Energy PRO techniques can also conserve power by adjusting operating frequency to match the workload of the device.  If enabled by MQX software, Energy PRO can manage power to the entire chip.  Not only do these techniques lower the power consumption by over 25 percent when the device is in operation, but also cut power to almost nil when idle.
 
In addition, the ARC Sound 210E Subsystem is completely pre-verified and pre-integrated. To reduce overall design effort and time to market, the AS 210E can be integrated in to the Cadence's Low-Power Solution EDA flow leveraging CPF (Common Power Format).  Lastly, available with the ARC Sound 210E is a library of software codecs for popular audio formats such as MPEG-2/4 AAC and Dolby Digital, among others.
 
"The new AS 210E Subsystem extends ARC's leadership in audio solutions by incorporating state-of-the-art low-power and sound enhancement technologies," said Bill Jackson, vice president of marketing at ARC International.  "And the SoC designer can build a differentiated solution that is energy efficient and provides a better audio experience."
 
Availability

The ARC Sound 210E Subsystem and library of audio codecs are available for licensing immediately. Contact ARC at info@arc.com or visit www.arc.com for more information.  

About ARC International plc

ARC International is the world leader in multimedia subsystems and configurable CPU/DSP processors.  Used by over 140 companies worldwide, ARC's configurable solutions enable the creation of highly differentiated system-on-chips (SoCs) that ship in hundreds of millions of devices annually.  ARC's patented subsystems and cores are smaller, consume less power, and are less expensive to manufacture than competing products.
ARC International maintains a worldwide presence with corporate and research and development offices in San Jose and Lake Tahoe, Calif., St. Albans, England, and St. Petersburg, Russia.  For more information visit www.ARC.com.  ARC International is listed on the London Stock Exchange as ARC International plc (LSE: ARK).