Agere Systems and Digital 5 Collaborate on Development of Complete Network Attached Storage and Digital Media Server Solution for Emerging Digital Home Market TAIPEI, Taiwan, Nov. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Taipei Home Developers Conference (Booth 22) -- Agere Systems (NYSE:AGR.ANYSE:AGR.B) and Digital 5, a leading provider of software for streaming of multimedia content, today announced an alliance to bring to market the next generation of digital media server and network attached storage solutions for the new age of the "digital home." (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040618/AGERELOGO ) The companies are developing a complete hardware and software platform to help accelerate the time-to-market for products by original design manufacturers (ODMs) and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) addressing the attached storage needs of digital media content throughout the home and small- to medium-sized business network environments. The joint collaboration is focused on developing and bringing to market a digital media server platform with the necessary chipsets, software integration, validation and customization for new products to be introduced in 2005. Agere and Digital 5 are working with a variety of consumer electronics companies to bring to market these new products. The exponential growth in the amount of digital entertainment content such as music, digital photographs and video has led to the need for advanced solutions that provide cost-effective methods for storing, streaming and protecting these files on home networks. Enabling design and equipment manufacturers to address these needs, Agere and Digital 5 will offer a platform to ensure that OEMs can rapidly bring NAS-based media server products to market. "Parks Associates expects a sea-change in the environment for IP-based media over the next 2-3 years," said Tricia Parks, president of Parks Associates. "The telcos are poised to push IP video into the home which will drive adoption of digital media use in the home. By 2008 over 30 million households will be using a digital media adapter." Parks Associates estimates the total data network nodes installed in households in the United States will grow from approximately 10 million in 2004 to more than 100 million in 2008. "Digital 5 provides a broad solution and in-depth knowledge associated with content navigation, media databases and streaming services associated with digital media server product needs," said Jeff Timbs, director of business development for Agere Systems. "Agere's expertise in delivering highly integrated system-on-a-chip products, combined with Digital 5's proven software, will offer OEMs and ODMs a comprehensive range of solutions from a complete reference platform to a turnkey product suite." "We are pleased to be able to collaborate with Agere Systems to support the vision and enable technology essential for sharing, storing and protecting a household's personal and commercial digital media files," said Michael Harris, president and COO of Digital 5. Our solution enables OEMs/ODMs to leverage a complete reference platform and accelerate time-to-market for devices designed to manage the increasing digital media content in the connected digital home." Both Agere Systems and Digital 5 are members of the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) and are developing digital media server and storage products that are expected to be based on DLNA guidelines in the future. The Digital 5 technology supports industry standards such as UPnP, HTTP, RTP, NMPR and 802.11g. Digital 5 provides an application customization layer creating the ability to easily add additional application functionality and utilize the customizable user interface to expose more features, enhance the device capabilities and enrich the user experience. Agere Systems and Digital 5 will be available for private customer briefings at the Digital Home Developers Conference to be held in Taipei Nov. 2-3, 2004. Michael Harris, president of Digital 5, will present the keynote address on Nov. 3 at 9:15 a.m., titled "The Digital Home: Here and Now!" Representatives from Agere and Digital 5 can be met at booth #22 on the exhibitor floor. About Agere Systems Agere Systems is a global leader in semiconductors for storage, wireless data, and public and enterprise networks. The company's chips and software power a broad range of computing and communications applications, from cell phones, PCs, PDAs, hard disk drives and gaming devices to the world's most sophisticated wireless and wireline networks. Agere's customers include the top manufacturers of consumer electronics, communications and computing equipment. Agere's products connect people to information and entertainment at home, at work and on the road -- making personal broadband a reality. About Digital 5, Inc. Digital 5, Inc. (Digital 5) is a leading provider of software enabling both wireless and wired sharing of multimedia content among networked consumer electronics (CE) devices. Digital 5's software technology is used to enable new products for existing CE categories, such as DVD players, televisions, and stereo systems, giving them the capability to access media content over a home network and the Internet. These products allow consumers to enjoy their music, digital pictures, or video in the comfort of their various home entertainment locations. With headquarters in Lawrenceville, New Jersey and operations in California, Taiwan, Japan and India, Digital 5 can be contacted on the World Wide Web at http://www.digital5.com/ . This release contains forward-looking statements based on information currently available to Agere. Agere's actual results could differ materially from the results stated or implied by such forward-looking statements due to a number of risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, our ability to keep pace with technological change, our dependence on new product development, price and product competition, availability of manufacturing capacity, customer demand for our products and services, general industry and market conditions, and our reliance on major customers and suppliers. For a further discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, see our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2003, and our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2004. Agere disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040618/AGERELOGO http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Agere Systems; Digital 5, Inc. CONTACT: Steven Goldsmith of Agere Systems, +1-610-712-6737 (office), ; or Sebastian Pistritto of Digital 5, +1-609-759-4202 (office), Web site: http://www.agere.com/ http://www.digital5.com/

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