Texas Instruments VoIP and Digital Media Technologies to Power World's First Digital Home Telephone Developed by Viseon

Texas Instruments VoIP and Digital Media Technologies to Power World's First Digital Home Telephone Developed by Viseon

Companies Collaborate to Accelerate Adoption of Digital Quality Audio and Video Applications over Broadband for the Consumer Market

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- (International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), booth #8202) -- Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE:TXN) (TI) and Viseon Inc. (BULLETIN BOARD: VSNI) today announced the joint development of Viseon's Digital Home Telephone, VisiFone(TM). The VisiFone was specifically designed to enhance the consumer Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) offerings from a variety of carriers both in the United States and abroad. This unique phone will enable consumers everywhere to make digital IP-based multimedia calls with anyone in the world.

"The phones inside all U.S. homes today have virtually gone unchanged since the introduction to touch-tone dialing in 1963. They were never designed with high-speed broadband connections in mind and are incapable of realizing the full potential that VoIP feature-rich digital services provide consumers," said Viseon president and CEO, John Harris. "VisiFone is a revolutionary digital telephone that will finally allow the home phone to join the digital world and to enable the features of VoIP on a fully digital device."

With the VisiFone, consumers will hear CD quality digital wide-band audio sound versus the monaural AM radio sound that they have become accustomed to. They will also be able to make high quality two-way video calls and even manage VoIP service features and preferences directly on their VisiFone.

Viseon's broadband Digital Home Telephone incorporates the latest technologies from TI's VoIP and digital media groups, including TI's newest IP phone system-on-a-chip, the TNETV1050, featuring enhanced digital voice quality, conferencing, security and interoperability for next-generation IP phone applications; and its DSP-based TMS320DM64x digital media processor, offering high quality, multi-channel video performance, complete software programmability and reduced system costs through the integration of key audio visual connectivity peripherals. The combination of TI's advanced components with its communications technologies in one integrated device enables consumers to enjoy true broadband voice and video applications through innovative new products such as the VisiFone.

"The development of Viseon's new VisiFone is an excellent real-world example of how TI has successfully merged two complementary technologies to provide a single point solution for a customer," said Bill Simmelink, general manager of TI's VoIP business. "The combination of our integrated system-on- a-chip for VoIP and our best-in-class digital streaming media processor provides unparalleled performance in video and voice communications. This truly highlights TI's commitment to deliver end-to-end software and silicon solutions for voice, video and data over broadband."

"The weakest link in the present generation VoIP service is the need to convert the digital voice packets into analog signal to make it backward compatible with existing home telephones," says Vamsi Sistla, Director of Broadband Research, ABI Research. "A high quality digital phone not only eliminates that drawback but also paves the way for new features and functionality for VoIP subscribers."

Compatible with most carriers' VoIP networks, Viseon's VisiFone features the highest quality video encoding/decoding system on the market today and is customized to display each carrier's feature and preference controls. Initially, the VisiFone will be offered through Vonage at http://www.vonage.com/ and is expected to be in over 7,000 retail/e-tail locations nationwide.

About Viseon

Viseon has been developing, manufacturing and patenting audio/video communication technologies for use by corporations, universities and government agencies since 1994. Its products have been sold under various brand names around the world including Philips, VTEL and Gentner. Viseon is partnering with several major VoIP carriers to deliver the VisiFone, the world's first digital home telephone, to consumers and small businesses. Viseon owns five U.S. patents and holds patents in 18 European and Asian countries with more than 50 additional patents pending. Viseon is headquartered in Dallas, Texas with offices throughout U.S. For more information, visit http://www.viseon.com/ .

Texas Instruments Broadband Solutions

For OEMs developing broadband communications solutions, TI's advanced signal processing-based silicon and software platforms deliver the optimal performance, lower power consumption, and system-level integration required to rapidly deploy differentiated next-generation products for cable modems, digital subscriber line (xDSL) modems, integrated access devices (IADs), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) gateways, carrier infrastructure, and home and office wireless networking. See http://www.ti.com/broadband .

About Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP and analog technologies to meet our customers' real world signal processing requirements. In addition to Semiconductor, the company's businesses include Sensors & Controls, and Educational & Productivity Solutions. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries.

Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information is located on the World Wide Web at http://www.ti.com/ .

Trademarks

VisiFone is a trademark of Viseon Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Safe Harbor Statement

Statements contained in this press release regarding the VoIP market and other statements of management's beliefs, goals and expectations may be considered "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements. The following factors and the factors discussed in TI's most recent Form 10-K could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements contained in this press release: actual market growth, customer demand. We disclaim any intention or obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this press release.

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20010105/NEF016LOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Texas Instruments Incorporated; Viseon Inc.

CONTACT: Deborah Shemony of Texas Instruments Incorporated,
+1-301-515-6643, or dshemony@ti.com ; or Erin Anthony of Golin Harris,
+1-972-308-9114, or eanthony@golinharris.com , for Texas Instruments
Incorporated; or Marcie Swick of Viseon Inc., +1-972-906-6320, or
mswick@viseon.com

Web site: http://www.ti.com/
http://www.ti.com/broadband
http://www.viseon.com/
http://www.vonage.com/
http://www.cesweb.org/default_flash.asp


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