ST enables its customers to develop and differentiate their products quickly and cost-effectively by supplying its chipsets together with complete technical support, including reference platforms, proven software packages, and development and testing tools, as well as providing comprehensive technical and marketing support on a worldwide basis. As an active player in all major standardization initiatives, ST uses and promotes industry standards and interoperability to reduce complexity, costs, and time-to-market for its customers.

In Set-Top Box, ST has dominated the industry since it announced the world’s first MPEG-2 decoder in 1995 for a digital satellite set-top box application. The Company is the largest supplier of set-top box chips, with a cumulative total of MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 decoders shipped exceeding 400 million pieces. ST has been highly successful in developing innovative multi-standard, multi-market solutions at unrivalled costs and time-to-market, for satellite, cable, terrestrial, and IPTV applications.

A one-stop shop for set-top box makers, ST offers both front- and back-end chipsets together with associated middleware, system software and conditional-access systems. The front-end portfolio includes various types of demodulators and RF devices for receiving satellite, cable, and terrestrial transmissions. The back-end offering consists of a comprehensive range of audio and video decoders. Since 2005, ST has been shipping the world’s first single-chip set-top box decoder supporting the H.264 and MPEG-2 standards in ST’s low-power 90nm technology. In 2008, ST leads the pack once again by introducing a single-chip H.264 decoder with an embedded DVB-S2 demodulator built in ST’s advanced low-power 65nm technology.

In digital TV, ST supplies its proven set-top-box technologies for feature-rich standard- and high-definition integrated digital TV sets, selling more than 10 million MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 standalone decoders in 2007. The Company has strengthened its position in the digital TV market by acquiring Genesis Microchip in early 2008, enhancing its technological capabilities for the transition to fully digital solutions in this segment and strengthening its product and intellectual-property portfolio.

In DVD, ST offers solutions for Automotive, Home Media Centers, Blu-Ray and combo players, i.e. combinations of DVD player and connected set-top box. ST leverages its leadership position in the digital set-top box, digital TV and automotive markets to provide a unique portfolio of world-class products, along with key partnerships in software, hardware and development tools.

ST has maintained a leading position in the Audio amplifier and processor markets since the analog days. Nowadays, the Company supplies a wide range of digital, analog, and mixed-signal integrated circuits for traditional and emerging audio applications. ST also provides all key components for CD-quality, low-cost streaming-audio applications over Bluetooth for the skyrocketing market of wireless multimedia.

ST’s Home Entertainment capabilities span the complete spectrum of software and hardware, from highly sophisticated video processing algorithms to the industry’s most integrated SoC devices, embedding best-in-class security and connectivity. Looking ahead, the Company’s substantial R&D investments and aggressive roadmaps are set to continue to encourage the growth of new applications in the home entertainment market.

Updated March 2008