Microsoft and Dolby to Bring High-Quality Audio to PCs

Microsoft PressPass – Microsoft and Dolby to Bring High-Quality Audio to PCs; Demonstrate New Technology at WinHEC 96

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 1, 1996 — Microsoft Corp. and Dolby Laboratories Inc. said today they intend to bring high-quality Dolby®
Surround Sound audio to personal computers, giving developers and consumers an exciting new dimension to interactive PC software. This alliance is another step toward Microsoft’s Simply Interactive PC vision to make the PC platform a center of entertainment, providing the ease of use and convenience of a consumer appliance.

Microsoft and Dolby signed a letter of intent to jointly develop technologies and specifications to support the use of Dolby’s industry-leading theater-quality sound systems, including Dolby digital AC-3®
technology to decode multichannel audio for use by six-speaker Surround Sound stereo systems.

The companies made the announcement and demonstrated the technology here today at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC 96). They also demonstrated a digital video disk ROM (DVD-ROM) movie clip on a PC using the Microsoft®
ActiveMovie
™
API and Dolby digital AC-3 technology.

“The PC is about to take on a new, starring role in the home as a leading entertainment device, and our agreement with Microsoft is a major step toward making that happen,”
said Ed Schummer, vice president at Dolby.
“Microsoft’s vision is compelling and exciting, and we’re delighted to participate in making it happen.”

“Bringing the PC to the home entertainment center requires giving it the best possible audio abilities,” said Carl Stork, director of Windows®
platforms at Microsoft.
“With the support of Dolby – the leader in quality audio standards – we’re working to make that happen.”

Also here today at WinHEC 96, Microsoft announced other key technologies for the Simply Interactive PC (SIPC), including the OnNow design initiative for systemwide power management and the Win32®
Driver Model for more powerful integration of PCs and peripheral devices. SIPC technologies also include support for new ways to connect to consumer electronics devices such as the IEEE 1394 bus and Universal Serial Bus; the ActiveX
™
and DirectX
™
technologies for real-time interactive 3-D graphics, audio and video; advances in PC telephony; and enhancements to the Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browser.

Additional information about the Simply Interactive PC is available on the Microsoft Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/thirdparty/hardware/.

Dolby Laboratories Inc. is the developer of audio signal processing systems used worldwide in consumer audio and video products, on consumer audio and video entertainment software, and in professional sound applications that include music recording, broadcasting and motion-picture sound. The privately held company has its world headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in New York and Los Angeles, and European headquarters in England.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

Microsoft, ActiveMovie, Windows, Win32, ActiveX and DirectX are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

Dolby and AC-3 are registered trademarks of Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corp.

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