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SIRIUS Satellite Licenses Digital Fountain Meta-Content Technology


WEBWIRE

FREMONT, CA -- Jan. 17, 2005 -- Digital Fountain, a supplier of patented reliable communications technology, today announced that Sirius Satellite Radio has signed a licensing agreement to use Meta-Content technology in upcoming products from Sirius. Over time, the companies expect that Digital Fountain technology will be incorporated into all Sirius Satellite Radio receivers. Sirius has licensed Digital Fountain’s latest generation of technology which is known as Raptor. Raptor is the most advanced Forward Error Correction (FEC) technology available today from any source.


“We are thrilled to be working with Sirius,” commented Charlie Oppenheimer, President and CEO of Digital Fountain. “Sirius has demonstrated that they are on the cutting edge in everything that they do and so this endorsement is further evidence of the leading position of our Raptor technology.”

“We evaluated a number of other alternatives and believe the efficiency and reliability of Digital Fountain Raptor best meets our needs,” said Terry Smith, CTO of Sirius.

Digital Fountain Meta-Content Technology for Mobile Data Broadcast

Meta-Content technology, including Raptor, is particularly useful for data and file broadcasting applications because it allows for efficient data reception even when devices receive data at random and intermittent intervals, as is often the case with automotive receivers. For example, when using Meta-Content technology to receive a broadcast of a file, devices need only collect any set of packets approximately equal in length to the original data package to instantly and perfectly recreate the original data. Because there is no need to worry about which packets any particular receiver collects, the data is received quickly and reassembled accurately, even amidst intermittent reception schedules and frequent broadcast interruptions.

Digital Fountain Raptor is a patented set of coding technologies created by the company’s world renowned scientists, Michael Luby and Amin Shokrollahi. The technology incorporates several unique properties that distinguish it from conventional FEC technologies: First, Raptor codes are “rateless” meaning there is no limit on the amount of unique encoded data that can be generated. Second, the codes have the property that encoding and decoding calculation requirements are linear with respect to the size of the source data. This contrasts to conventional coding technologies where calculation requirements increase at an accelerating rate with larger size. Moreover, Raptor is extraordinarily efficient, allowing it to operate in software, even on low-power embedded processors.

About SIRIUS

SIRIUS delivers more than 120 channels of the best commercial-free music, compelling talk shows, news and information, and the most exciting sports programming to listeners across the country in digital quality sound. SIRIUS offers 65 channels of 100% commercial-free music, and features over 55 channels of sports, news, talk, entertainment, traffic and weather for a monthly subscription fee of only $12.95. SIRIUS also broadcasts live play-by-play games of the NFL and NBA, and is the Official Satellite Radio partner of the NFL.

SIRIUS radios for the car, truck, home, RV and boat are manufactured by Alpine, Audiovox, Blaupunkt, Clarion, Delphi, Jensen, JVC, Kenwood, Sanyo and XACT Communications. Available in more than 25,000 retail locations, SIRIUS radios can be purchased at major retailers including Best Buy, Circuit City, Crutchfield, Office Depot, Sears, Target, Wal-Mart and RadioShack. SIRIUS is also available at heavy truck dealers and truck stops nationwide.

SIRIUS radios are currently offered in vehicles from Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Infiniti, Jeep(R), Lincoln-Mercury, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, MINI, Nissan, Porsche and Volkswagen. Beginning in February 2005, SIRIUS will also be available in Toyota, Lexus, and Scion vehicles. Hertz currently offers SIRIUS at 53 major locations around the country.

About Digital Fountain

Digital Fountain’s patented Meta-Content technology provides perfect communications over imperfect networks. The company licenses its breakthrough network transport technology to leading companies around the world. Digital Fountain’s Meta-Content technology is used today in a variety of enterprise, military and consumer devices and applications. Leading organizations including Honda, NTT, Sirius Satellite Radio, Sumitomo Electric Networks, Titan Systems, the United States Postal Service, XM Satellite Radio and the United States military are using and building Meta-Content powered systems.



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