Agere Systems Licenses StarCore DSP Platforms StarCore’s DSPs enhance Agere’s expanding portfolio of advanced communications products

AUSTIN, Tx. and ALLENTOWN, Pa. – February 3, 2004 – StarCore LLC today announced that Agere Systems (NYSE: AGR.A; AGR.B) has made a significant addition to its intellectual property (IP) portfolio for embedded solutions by licensing StarCore’s digital signal processor (DSP) technologies. The adoption of StarCore’s scalable and synthesizable DSP core architectures further enhances Agere’s product offering and builds upon the company’s rich tradition of innovative DSP technology.

Applications designers continuously seek high-performance, low-power consumption embedded solutions to provide advanced features for next-generation communications products. StarCore’s licensable cores, systems and platforms provide the performance and efficiency found in the industry’s leading unlicensable DSP architectures, but have the added benefit of being extremely versatile and flexible through a scalable design.

“StarCore has made tremendous progress in the development of its new DSP architectures since its inception,” said Necip Sayiner, vice president of Agere’s Networking IC division. “StarCore extends Agere’s portfolio of proven signal processing IP for system on a chip (SoC) products for wireless and wired applications. Integrating this impressive technology in our next generation SoCs will help extend our leadership in the communications infrastructure equipment market.”

StarCore’s SC1200 and SC1400 DSP cores and platforms combine high speed, compact program memory footprint and excellent energy efficiency. The technology builds from the legacy of the proven SC140 core and is well-supported by a growing network of 3rd party application and tool vendors. The StarCore architectures are scalable, offering code compatibility across applications and product generations. The architectures are based on a five-stage pipeline for easy programming and have been conceived with compiler efficiency in mind, so that application designers can develop DSP software in C for faster time to market. All cores and system IP blocks are synthesizable, providing customers the flexibility of using multiple, independent foundries.

“We have put forth a tremendous effort to create the best DSP core available, and now the work is paying off as we continue to license our technologies to major new customers such as Agere,” said Tom Lantzsch, chief executive officer, StarCore LLC. “Having the company that invented the DSP choose our products is truly an honor and provides a very positive statement on the performance of our core architectures.”

About StarCore LLC

Based in Austin, Texas, StarCore LLC is a leader in the development of highperformance DSP architectures, cores and intellectual property building blocks for the communications and consumer electronics industries. For more information on StarCore LLC and its intellectual property and services, visit the company’s Web site at www.starcore-dsp.com.

About Agere Systems

Agere Systems is a premier provider of advanced integrated circuit solutions for wireless data, high-density storage and multi-service networking applications. Agere's wireless data portfolio enables seamless network access and Internet connectivity through its GPRS offering for data-capable cellular phones, as well as Wi-Fi/802.11 solutions for wireless LANs and computing applications. The company is the market leader in providing integrated circuits for the hard disk drive market, with number one positions in sales of system-on-a-chip solutions and preamplifiers. Agere also provides custom and standard multi-service networking solutions to move information across wired, wireless and enterprise netwo rks. Agere's customers include the leading PC manufacturers, wireless terminal providers, network equipment suppliers and hard-disk drive providers. More information about Agere Systems is available from its web site at http://www.agere.com.