REDMOND, Wash. - March 17, 1999 -Microsoft Corp. announced today that its Windows^® Media Technologies will be optimized for Intel Corp.'s new Intel Pentium_® III Xeon™ processor, resulting in significant time and cost savings for content providers and a sharper, smoother visual experience for end users. Microsoft plans for a future release of Windows Media Technologies to contain an updated MPEG 4 video codec that is optimized for the Pentium III Xeon processor.

Faster Encoding Rates Reduce Development Costs

In a business where time directly translates to money, content developers are always looking for ways to increase efficiency. The Pentium III Xeon-optimized MPEG 4 codec in Windows Media Technologies accelerates encoding speed and can encode on-demand video up to 40 percent faster than on the previous-generation Pentium II Xeon chip. In addition, the codec encodes live video at 640 x 480 at a rate of 25 fps on a dual Pentium III Xeon 500 - a significant increase in performance. This improved encoding performance will help boost productivity and save development time and costs for content developers.

"By optimizing Windows Media Technologies for the Pentium III Xeon processor, we will provide our streaming media customers with dramatic improvements in speed, frame rate and resolution for on-demand and real-time encoding," said Tod Nielsen, general manager for developer relations at Microsoft. "Our new MPEG 4 codec in Windows Media Technologies is optimized to provide content developers with the fastest encoding performance available, resulting in huge cost savings."

"The combination of Intel's Pentium III Xeon processor with Microsoft's optimized Windows Media Technologies-based MPEG 4 codec will enable companies to deploy scalable, high-performing streaming media solutions," said Andre Walper, director of marketing, Intel workstation products group. "By taking advantage of these two new technologies, content developers will be able to deliver a faster, more compelling streaming media experience."

New Levels of Visual Quality and Realism for the End User

The MPEG 4 codec optimized for the Pentium III Xeon processor provides higher resolution and frame rates for live encoding, affording end users a much crisper and smoother video experience. Pentium III Xeon processor optimization also boosts decoder and post-filter performance, leaving ample processing power for displaying rich visual data on the client. In addition, Microsoft^® Windows Media Technologies software is backward-compatible, allowing the rapidly growing community of over 25 million users of Windows Media Player to view content optimized for the new Pentium III Xeon processor.

Availability

Windows Media Technologies offer best-of-industry streaming-media functionality, with tools for quick and easy preparation of content; integration with security, management and administration features of the Windows NT^® Server operating system; and built-in access to online-commerce products. The new MPEG 4 codec, including Intel Pentium III Streaming SIMD Extensions, is scheduled to ship by the end of June. For more information on the Pentium

III Xeon-optimized version of Windows Media Technologies, please see http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/.