Telsey Chooses National Semiconductor Technology to Enable First Video Telephony Service in Italy

Telsey’s IP Video Station Allows Deployment of Completely New Services to End Users

Milan/Italy -- 2/3/2003 -- National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM) today announced that Telsey Telecommunications has chosen National's Geode™ processor technology for its IP Video Station which will be commercialised in Italy in February 2003. Thanks to Telsey’s complete set of video and audio interfaces, IP Video Stations can be connected to ordinary TV sets and Hi-Fi audio systems, including home theatre equipment.

Telsey's new IP Video Station is the most complete solution for high quality video telephony and offers a broad range of IP interactive video services, including video streaming, video on demand, on-line home automation, video surveillance and network entertainment applications.

"In the coming years, demand for IP-based services will increase rapidly. National's Geode SC1200/CS1301 chipset is a streaming media solution that allows us to offer our customers a cost effective, flexible and reliable appliance that delivers high-quality, multimedia-rich contents over broadband networks,” said Massimo Mason, general manager at Telsey Telecommunications Italy.

"The combination of National Semiconductor's Geode technology, and Telsey’s know-how in developing high-quality broadband access devices, provides the ideal solution for the deployment of advanced entertainment and business communication services," said Paul McCormick, senior marketing manager of the Set-Top Box business unit, National Semiconductor.

Geode Technology Optimises Power, Performance and Price
National Semiconductor's highly integrated x86 Geode SC1200 processor is fully compatible with more than 300 plug-ins and applets available on the internet and provides the best balance in performance, price and power consumption. Combined with the Geode CS1301 multimedia co-processor that provides real-time processing of audio, video, graphics and communications data streams, it enables a powerful MPEG2, MPEG4 and Windows Media™ Technology encoding and decoding architecture for next generation entertainment appliances.

The Geode SC1200 processor is an x86 architecture single-chip device, integrating a Geode GX1 processor, a TV video processor, video input port, video output ports, core logic and a SuperI/O block. The Geode CS1301 multimedia companion chip combines a 180 MHz, 2.5V Trimedia™ core and a full complement of enhanced on-chip I/O and co-processing units. The co-processor achieves up to 6.5 billion operations per second, ideal for applications requiring real-time processing of video, audio, graphics and communications data streams.

About Telsey
Telsey Telecommunications is a worldwide leader in the design and production of Access Gateway, IP-Video Station and Networking solutions for the distribution of broadband interactive services in the next generation access networks for both IP and DSL technologies. Telsey is an Italian company founded in 1993 with headquarters in Teviso. www.telsey.com

About National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor is the premier analog company driving the information age. Combining real-world analog and state-of-the-art digital technology, the company is focused on the fast growing markets for wireless handsets; displays; information infrastructure, and information appliances. With headquarters in Santa Clara, California, National reported sales of $1.5 billion for its most recent fiscal year and has about 10,000 employees worldwide.