DSP Group and GAO Research Announce V.90 Modem for OKI Electric Industry

SANTA CLARA, California and TORONTO, Canada, March 19, 2002 -- DSP Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: DSPG), the world leader in the development and licensing of Digital Signal Processor (DSP) cores, and GAO Research, world leading supplier of embedded communication software, announced today that Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd., of Japan has licensed GAO's V.90 (56k) modem software as well as the software to allow fallbacks to all lower speed modems which are designed for use with DSP Group's Teak® DSP Core. Oki is an existing Teak and TeakLite® licensee and GAO has already implemented several algorithms using DSP Group's Teak and TeakLite DSP Cores.

GAO's communications industry expertise has been established through its product line that includes software for voice band modems, broadband DSL modems, fax, fax relay, fax over IP, telephony, voice, voice over IP, and voice over DSL gateways. Developing GAO's products using DSP Group's Teak DSP Core elevates the collaborative efforts of both companies to a range of offerings for OEMs looking to shorten their time to market with DSP-based system-on-a-chip solutions for many of their digital devices.

"After careful consideration, we concluded that the combination of GAO's software modems with DSP Group's Teak processor was the best, most robust solution for our chipset product," says Hiroshi Kume, Senior Manager with Oki's LSI division. "The product has a minimal footprint and requires only a nominal amount of power while remaining superior to, and more adaptable than, a traditional chipset." Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is Japan's first telecommunications manufacturer.

"Both GAO and DSP Group have long recognized the tremendous possibilities in the union of software-based communication solutions and powerful DSPs," says Dr. Frank Gao, CEO of GAO Research. "Currently, our entire suite of modems as well as some of our other software is available for DSP Group's family of cores. We are moving to offer all of our communications products for these DSPs."

"Our collaboration with GAO Research to provide modem solutions to our licensees illustrates the solid business relationships that DSP Group is building throughout the DSP IP market," says Bat-Sheva Ovadia, vice president of marketing and business development for DSP Group's Technology Licensing Division. "The SmartCores series continues to satisfy OEM's demand for powerful, open-architecture DSP IP platforms on which they can create value-added chipset solutions."

About DSP Group's SmartCores™

DSP Group's SmartCores series of low-power, fixed-point, licensable DSP cores offer a range of performance, price and power consumption balances, addressing a wide range of applications, from low-end, high-volume applications, such as digital answering machines, hard disk controllers, low speed modems and Voice over IP terminals, to high performance applications such as third generation (3G) cellular communications, broadband modems, consumer multimedia and Voice over IP gateways.

About GAO

GAO Research Inc. is the leading provider of embedded communications software. GAO's software products cover modem (including ADSL), fax, speech and telephony for such applications as VoIP, RAS, Internet Appliances, PBX, set-top boxes, SOHO Gateways, etc. GAO's clientele includes 15 Fortune 500 companies and others from around the world. For further information, visit our website, at www.gaoresearch.com or call 1-416-292-0038 ext.202 or 218 or email info@gaoresearch.com.

About DSP Group, Inc.

DSP Group, Inc., is a global leader in the development and marketing of high-performance, cost-effective, licensable digital signal processing (DSP) cores. The company's family of DSP cores provides ideal solutions for low-power, cost-effective applications, such as cellular, broadband communications, VoIP, multimedia, advanced telecommunications systems, disk-drive controllers, and other types of embedded-control applications. By combining its DSP core technologies with its proprietary, advanced speech-processing algorithms, DSP Group also delivers a wide range of enabling, application-specific integrated circuits (ICs) for full-featured, integrated-telephony products and applications, including spread spectrum wireless technologies. DSP Group maintains an international presence with offices located around the globe. More information about DSP Group is available from its Web site at http://www.dspg.com.
 

About Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.

Founded more than a century ago in 1881, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is Japan's first telecommunications manufacturer, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. With more than 24,000 employees worldwide, Oki Electric provides customers with top-quality products and technologies for telecommunication systems, information systems and electronic devices. For more information, visit www.oki.com.

This press release contains statements that may qualify as "forward-looking statements" under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including the statements made by Mrs. Ovadia about the expectations of the collaboration with GAO. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and the Company assumes no obligation to update this information. In addition, the events described or implied in these forward-looking statements may not actually arise. The Company's expectations about the design collaboration with GAO could differ materially from those described in this press release as a result of various factors, including, the success of the design collaboration, market acceptance and demand of the SmartCores-based SoC designs, the Company's ability to further develop and enhance the SmartCores to differentiate it from the Company's competitors at cost-effective prices and in a timely manner, the introduction of competing products and technology, and the general market demand for products that incorporate the Company's DSP technology. These factors and other factors which may effect future operating results or our stock price are discussed under "RISK FACTORS" in our report on form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2001, which has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and is also available on our Web site (www.dspg.com) under Investor Relations.

PalmDSPCore, Teak, TeakLite and OakDSPCore are registered trademarks and SmartCores is a trademark of DSP Group, Inc. Other brands and products referenced herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.