Cradle Teams With Techwell to Launch High-Performance Scalable PCI DVR Card Reference Design Aimed at Improving Security Surveillance Applications

SAN JOSE, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- March 28, 2007 -- Cradle Technologies, a fabless semiconductor company providing Multi-core DSPs (MDSPs) for video and imaging systems, today announced the product launch of Janus, a low-cost PCI DVR reference design from Cradle featuring Techwell's Inc. (NASDAQ: TWLL) TW2835 AV Controller and Cradle's CT3616 MDSP. Techwell, a leading designer of mixed-signal video semiconductor solutions for the security surveillance, automotive, and consumer electronics industries, will demonstrate this reference design during the International Security Show ISC West, March 28-30th at their Booth #6133 located in the security surveillance pavilion.

Cradle's new Janus PCI DVR uses four Techwell TW2835 AV Controller chips. The TW2835 is a feature-rich, four-channel video and audio controller for security applications. With four NTSC/PAL video decoders, motion detection, dual color display controllers, and dual video encoders with NTSC/PAL analog and digital outputs, the TW2835 provides the most integrated features at the lowest cost for the security surveillance industry. The TW2835 also boasts a flexible video display/record/playback controller including basic OSD display and MUX functions.

"We are pleased to partner with Cradle, a leader in MDSPs," said Tom Krause, Director of Business Development at Techwell. "The Janus PCI DVR reference design powered by the TW2835 and Cradle's CT3616 enables fast, easy design of fully-featured security products and we look forward to sharing this design with our respective customers."

Cascading four Techwell TW2835 AV controller chips, Janus is able to simultaneously compress up to 16 channels of video and audio using H.264, MPEG4 or MJPEG with a single CT3616, while reserving headroom for intelligent video content analysis applications or playback. The fully software programmable CT3616 MDSP allows developers to customize the features and functions of the Janus design for product differentiation. Channel density, frame rate, resolution, and other parameters can be modified to accommodate video processing and analysis needs.

The Janus PCI DVR design supports several video encoders including H.264, MPEG-4, and MJPEG. Janus also supports on-the-fly changes to encoding parameters while the video encoder is actively working. As a result, the frame rate, resolution, or bitrate of each individual video channel can be dynamically changed as required in response to external events, such as alarms. Janus will be offered to customers with pre-built combinations of channel density and codec formats. This eliminates the need for embedded software development work by the customers, and allows manufacturers to quickly bring to market families of PCI DVR cards based on a single hardware reference design, manufactured with different stuffing options and host software configuration. These features significantly reduce development time, cost, and complexity, while providing ultimate flexibility in product configuration and customization.

"The combination of Techwell's feature-rich AV controller chip and our MDSP chips in the Janus PCI DVR card demonstrates Cradle's ability to provide a flexible and high-performance product that can handle the complex algorithms inherent in state-of-the-art video surveillance equipment," said Bruce Schulman, Vice President at Cradle. "Our Janus reference design gives the system designer a head-start in the development of low-cost and high-end products for a wide range of video applications."

Pricing and Availability

The Janus PCI DVR reference design kit will be released to customers in Q2 2007. Contact Techwell or Cradle sales representatives for detailed product information, pricing, and availability. Techwell's TW2835 is currently in mass production, please contact a local Techwell sales representative for evaluation boards, samples and pricing -- sales@techwellinc.com

Cradle's CT3616 is currently in mass production, please contact Cradle sales representatives for pricing -- sales@cradle.com

About Techwell, Inc.

Techwell is a semiconductor company that designs, markets and sells mixed signal integrated circuits for multiple video applications in the security surveillance, automotive and consumer electronics markets. Techwell designs both general purpose and application specific products that enable the conversion of analog video signals to digital form and perform advanced digital video processing to facilitate the display, storage and transport of video content. Headquartered in San Jose, CA, Techwell currently has over 90 employees in the U.S., Korea, Taiwan, China and Japan. Please visit www.techwellinc.com for more information.

About Cradle Technologies

Cradle is a fabless semiconductor company providing the best price/performance, most flexible, and most scalable DSP solutions for real-time multimedia applications. Cradle's Multi-core DSP architecture innovation delivers high-performance scalable DSP processing with the flexibility, time-to-market, and product differentiation benefits of processor-based programmable platforms. Coupled with a Janus Reference Design Kit and suite of application software functions, Cradle provides OEMs with all the building blocks necessary to enable flexible yet high-performance DSP designs. Cradle's corporate headquarters are located in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit www.cradle.com.

Contact Information: Media Contacts: Cradle Technologies Bruce Schulman Phone: (408) 636-5095 Email: Email Contact Techwell, Inc. Sabrina Joseph Phone: (408) 726-1577 Email: Email Contact