High Functionality and Mt. Rainier Support Combines for Industry-leading Performance

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - October 4, 2001 - Oak Technology, Inc., today announced the availability of the OTI-9797S 32X Compact Disc - Recordable/ReWritable (CD-R/RW) optical storage controller. By recording at 32 times the speed of the original single-speed CD specification, the new controller will enable drives to record a full 650 Megabyte compact disc in three minutes or less.

The OTI-9797S controller is capable of 32X write speeds as well as 48X CD-ROM read speeds, and is pin-compatible with Oak's 24X OTI-9797 controller to provide an easy upgrade path for OEMs. The OTI-9797S is suitable for use in PC-based or consumer audio CD-R/RW applications.

Oak's OTI-9797S controller employs advanced features to achieve one of the fastest overall recording times while still maintaining high reliability and buffer underrun protection. It supports Constant Angular Velocity (CAV), a writing technique that achieves faster write seek times and reduces overall recording time by maintaining a constant rotation speed. For best performance, the new controller also incorporates support for the Mt. Rainier standard, and integrates Oak's patent pending ExacLink buffer underrun protection, thereby providing one of the highest functionality CD-R/RW controllers on the market.

"Driving the need for removable optical storage, recordable CDs are the storage media of choice today for a wide range of music, data, and now video applications," said Nicos Syrimis, vice president, marketing, for Oak's Optical Storage Group. "With burn time for a CD down to three minutes or less, it is now much easier for users to store and edit up to an hour and a half of high quality audio and video on CD than it has been in the past."

"For our OEMs, this controller provides the highest performance recording capability today, including features to support the Mt. Rainier standard, giving system designers much more flexibility while reducing their overall system costs," Syrimis continued. "In addition, it provides an easy upgrade path to the next-generation 40X recording speeds."

Compatibility with Mt. Rainier Standard
The Mt. Rainier standard enables native OS support of data storage on CD-RW. This makes the technology far easier to use and allows the replacement of the floppy. The Mount Rainier open standard is promoted by Compaq, Microsoft, Philips, and Sony and is supported by 38 industry leaders: OS vendors, PC-OEM's, ISV's, chip makers, and media makers. Oak Technology has been involved in the development of the specification and is one of the supporting members.

Higher Performance and Maximum Integration
The OTI-9797S employs partial and full CAV write and audio DAC/filter circuits that offer the best performance in the industry, plus dyanamic write strategy, allowing a high degree of programability and flexibility in the implementation of CD-R and CD-RW write strategies. In addition to a highly automated block decoder/encoder, the OTI-9797S integrates a 48X CD-DSP that uses a proprietary slicing technique and digital symmetry control to offer increased frequencies and gain programmability. The OTI-9797S digital CD servo provides highly accurate and advanced track counting, enabling the unit to jump an exact number of tracks - up to 2047 tracks - to substantially reduce seek time. The CD wobble servo block supports speeds up to 32X and allows CD encoding at all legacy speeds from 1X to 32X.

Oak's OTI-9797S provides a high level of integration that includes an Ultra DMA IDE/ATAPI controller and USB1.1 interface. It uses digital processing techniques to minimize the amount of required analog circuitry, providing increased flexibility and greater immunity to system noise. An advanced architecture affords reduced error rates, greater seek accuracy, and improved seek access time. Power management is provided to reduce power consumption and increase power efficiency.

Availability
Oak's OTI-9797S controller is available now, priced at $15 each in sample quantities, and under $10 each in production quantities of 10,000.

About Oak Technology
Oak Technology, Inc., a leading provider of solutions for the storage, manipulation and distribution of digital content, is committed to driving the emerging world of connected Information Appliances. The company's fully integrated products and technologies target two key markets: optical storage (CD-RW and DVD for PC and consumer) and digital imaging (advanced copiers, printers, faxes, scanners and MFPs). Founded in 1987, Oak is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., and has sales offices, design centers and research facilities around the world. The company trades on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the symbol OAKT. Additional information about Oak and its digital solutions can be found at www.oaktech.com.