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Upgrade offers enhanced 3D Sound to millions of PC users

By upgrading SoundMAX-based systems to support Virtual Ear, millions of users with SoundMAX-based PC desktops and laptops will now be able to customize their PC audio systems to suit their individual physical hearing characteristics. SoundMAX is shipped with the motherboards of leading PC OEMs and motherboard suppliers, providing premium audio features without the installation of a soundcard.

Virtual Ear is available to users via an Internet upgrade. As a result, for the first time PC gamers, particularly those using headphones, will be immersed in a virtual audio world so realistic that it will seem as if the gaming environment and reality have 'fused' together.

The technology behind Sensaura Virtual Ear is the result of more than a decade of research and development by Sensaura into audio and the physiology of hearing. Virtual Ear is customized to the user's hearing characteristics via Head-Related Transfer Function (HRTF) data, from which the processed audio is synthesized. The Virtual Ear software will for the first time allow users to select different sets of HRTFs to match their individual ear physiology. While baseline Sensaura 3D audio is included in SoundMAX, the Virtual Ear upgrade allows the user greater configurability of HRTF data, providing a more realistic 3D listening experience, particularly for headphone users.

``The Virtual Ear software download will effectively evolve your existing SoundMAX-based audio hardware into an acoustically-realistic, adjustable 3D-audio device, establishing a new standard for gaming and music listening particularly for headphone users,'' stated John Croteau, director of Analog Devices Integrated Audio Group. ``We are confident that Virtual Ear will be a great addition to the SoundMAX product line and we are pleased to provide even more realistic 3D sound to our PC OEM and motherboard customers.''

``When you listen through speakers, your outer ears are part of the listening process and so only partial HRTFs are required in the signal-processing'', explained Dr. Alastair Sibbald, the principal scientist at Sensaura Ltd. ``However, when you listen through headphones, the audio signals bypass your outer ears, effectively removing their acoustic influence from the listening process. Consequently, headphone users require support for HRTFs in order to enjoy a robust listening experience.''

Price and Availability

Priced at $24.95, the upgrade is available from Sensaura through their web site www.sensaura.com/adi. The Sensaura Virtual Ear upgrade incorporates a user-friendly 'wizard' for set-up purposes, offering both 'quick' and 'advanced' set-up options. The quick option provides 25 pre-set HRTF types from which the listener can choose, while the advanced option provides total control of four key ear characteristics that determine how the hearing process for the individual works, namely concha depth, concha openness, head size and ear size.

SoundMAX in the PC Audio Marketplace

A product of Analog Devices' Integrated Audio Group (IAG), SoundMAX 2.0 is a low-cost, high-value integrated digital audio solution for PC motherboard subsystems. Now shipping on one of every two desktop PCs manufactured by major suppliers, SoundMAX 2.0 provides a wide range of consumers - including business and home users, gamers and music enthusiasts - a high quality audio experience that is equivalent to that offered by much more expensive PCI card-based solutions. Unlike PCI card solutions, which occupy precious real estate in a PCI slot, SoundMAX delivers an 'integrated digital audio' solution, combining software features with a tiny AC'97 CODEC and leveraging today's powerful host processors to produce acoustically rich digital sound. SoundMAX eliminates the need for an add-in soundcard while offering the scalability of a software solution that enables software-enhancement upgrades.

About SoundMAX Technology

The SoundMAX solution, which consists of the Analog Devices AD1885 analog CODEC (COder/DECoder) and companion Windows® software drivers, leverages the Intel Pentium® III and Celeron(TM) processors to implement superior audio synthesis and 3D sound-effects processing. The AD1885 provides stereo analog I/O to the PC's speakers, headphones and microphone devices, and includes high-fidelity analog/digital and sample-rate converters, as well as power amplifiers and programmable-gain blocks. Coupled with Staccato Systems, Inc.'s advanced Synthcore(TM) wavetable capabilities and Sensaura's (UK) 3D audio technology, SoundMAX provides superior functionality, including 3D positioning and acoustic rendering, an unlimited DLS wavetable and up to 94 dB playback, asynchronous record/playback and 3D sound for Phat Stereo. For further information about SoundMAX, please visit http://www.analog.com/pc.

About Sensaura

Based in the United Kingdom with its parent company, Scipher plc, Sensaura Ltd. is at the forefront of audio research both in the PC and the consumer electronics markets. Presently holding technology licensing agreements with vendors such as Yamaha, ESS Technology, Analog Devices, Inc. and Crystal Cirrus Logic, Sensaura's technology licensees control over 80% of the PC audio chip market world-wide. In addition to Sensaura 3D Positional Audio, the company has developed other technologies, most notably Sensaura Virtual Surround Technology. The Sensaura portfolio of intellectual property has an increasing number of worldwide patent filings. Although now an independent organization, Sensaura Ltd. retains strong links with Central Research Laboratories, EMI's former research center, of which it was previously a business unit. More information about Scipher plc can be found on the World Wide Web at www.scipher.com. For further information about Sensaura, please visit www.sensaura.com.

About Analog Devices

With $1.8 billion in revenues for the first three quarters of fiscal year 2000, Analog Devices is a leading manufacturer of precision high-performance integrated circuits used in analog and digital signal processing applications. Headquartered in Norwood, Massachusetts, the company employs approximately 8,600 people worldwide and has manufacturing facilities in Massachusetts, California, North Carolina, Ireland, the Philippines and Taiwan. Analog Devices' stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the company is included in the S&P 500 Index.

Notes to Editors:

Sensaura, the Sensaura double crescent logo, Sensaura3D, Sensaura MultiDrive, Sensaura MacroFX, Sensaura EnvironmentFX, Sensaura ZoomFX, Sensaura Virtual Ear and Sensaura Jamma are all trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Sensaura Ltd. or Central Research Laboratories Ltd. Sensaura Limited is a Scipher Company. All other brands and names are the property of their respective owners.

Contact:

     Sensaura Ltd., London
     Editorial Contact:
     Farhaan Mirza, +44 (0)20 8848 6508
     Fmirza@sensaura.com
          or
     Sales Contact:
     Barnaby Wheller, +44 (0)20 8848 6492
     Bwheller@sensaura.com