Tuesday July 14, 9:05 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Diamond Multimedia and Aureal Semiconductor
Announce Major Strategic Partnership to Deliver
Advanced PCI Audio Technology to the PC Market
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 14, 1998--Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc.
(Nasdaq:DIMD - news), a leader in the interactive multimedia market, and Aureal Semiconductor
Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board:AURL - news), a leading developer of advanced positional 3D audio
technology, today announced a significant strategic alliance to co-develop and market
next-generation PC audio solutions for the PC consumer and game markets.
Diamond will utilize Aureal's A3D/Vortex audio technology exclusively for products sold under
Diamond's award-winning Monster Sound PCI audio accelerator brand. Diamond intends to begin
shipments of its next generation Monster Sound solutions featuring Vortex with A3D technology to
retail stores, OEMs, systems integrators and distributors in the near future.
''The combination of Diamond's reach into the worldwide retail and distribution channels and
Aureal's consistent innovation in cutting-edge audio technology will result in tremendous value for
consumers as well as contribute to the overall progress of PC audio,'' said Bill Schroeder, president
and chief executive officer of Diamond Multimedia. ''With a foundation already created by the
growing popularity of our Monster Sound audio accelerators which feature Aureal's proprietary
A3D for 3D audio, and the incorporation of Aureal's state-of-the-art Vortex audio processors in our
next generation of Monster Sound products, Diamond and Aureal plan to propel the demand for
positional 3D sound technology into a market that we expect to be as successful as 3D graphics is
today.''
Since the introduction of the first Monster Sound audio accelerator, featuring Aureal's A3D
positional 3D audio technology, Diamond's Monster Sound brand has quickly become the audio
accelerator solution of choice among dedicated PC gamers. To date, Diamond's Monster Sound
products as well as Aureal's Vortex audio chip enabled sound cards featuring A3D, have received
numerous awards from the industry's most influential PC, multimedia and gaming publications.
''The strategic alliance between Diamond and Aureal is a very exciting development for the PC
audio market. Both companies are dedicated to providing consumers with audio solutions that
deliver a more immersive, life-like experience, whether they're on the Internet, playing games or
using the newest multimedia software. Now the two companies are combining forces in a close-knit
strategic alliance that will focus and coordinate our respective strengths, aimed at driving our
combined share of the audio gaming market to a very substantial level,'' said Kip Kokinakis, CEO of
Aureal Semiconductor. ''The success model we are using is to drive A3D to be to audio gaming
what 3Dfx Interactive's Glide is to graphics gaming.''
Aureal's A3D positional 3D audio technology has quickly received widespread support from the
industry's leading game developers. In fact, A3D-designed audio effects have become an essential
element for creating the hottest 3D-rich PC games on the market, including blockbuster games such
as Unreal by Epic Megagames. A3D-designed PC games are currently available from an
increasingly large list of game developers, including Activision(R), Interplay(R), LucasArts
Entertainment(R), Maxis(R) and Rage Software(R).
''Our research shows that worldwide discrete sound board shipments increased from 17.4 million in
1996 to 20.8 million in 1997,'' said Sujata Ramnarayan, multimedia analyst at Dataquest. ''With the
game market pushing the envelope for new experiences, Dataquest believes that 3D audio will have
a place in today's new technologies and tomorrow's gaming experience.''
For a complete list of PC games featuring A3D positional 3D audio effects, Internet surfers can
check out Diamond's dedicated PC gaming Internet site, the Diamond Underground, at
www.diamondmm.com/underground or Aureal Semiconductor's site at www.a3d.com.
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