*****For immediate use April 19^th, 2001

NEC Announces World First IEEE1394 Link LSI with DV Codec for Consumer Electronics

"uPD72891/72893"

TOKYO April 19, 2001 - NEC Corporation (NEC) (NASDAQ: NIPNY) (FTSE: 6701q.l) (TSE: 6701) today announced it will begin sampling from June 2001 of two IEEE 1394 link LSI chips with embedded DV Codec in collaboration with Canopus co., LTD. Both chips, the (uPD72891) with 5C (DTCP)^*1 copy protection processing capability and the (uPD72893) without the copy protection support function, will target Audio Visual (AV) consumer electronics, featuring an onboard DV Codec enabling AV processing for Digital Video Cameras (DVC) which has not been available until now.

The world-first presence of an internal DV codec aboard an IEEE1394 link LSI enables IEEE1394 transaction and AV processing, as well as bus management and 5C (DTCP)^* copy protection processing all in the single chip uPD72891 (uPD72893 does not support 5C(DTCP) copy protection.). As a result, the uPD72891/72893 offer a digital system that is able to receive and transmit DV data from/to DVCs at a very low cost. With the new uPD72891/ uPD72893 chips digital AV equipment, such as Digital Video Home Systems (DVHS) and Digital Television (DTV), which have currently only supported MPEG digital video streams, will be able to record and display DV video signals transmitted from DVCs.

Canopus co., LTD has gained the reputation of a high quality and high performance video editing system supplier. The development of the uPD72891/72893 with the embedded DV codec, created by Canopus's highly advanced video editing systems offers improved picture quality and much improved interoperability with DVCs.

With digital satellite broadcasting trials underway from December 2000 and increasing digitalization of audio and visual media, a flux of digital media consumer electronics is expected to come to market. The IEEE1394 interface is anticipated to play an important role in connecting these products to each other and future home networks, thanks to its easy-to-use interface and high data transfer rates of between 100 to 400Mbps. In fact, it is already beginning to be seen in digital video cameras, personal computers and other systems now on the market.

DVCs are without a doubt one of the most popular consumer products on the market. While these machines have the IEEE1394 connector like the MPEG equipment, they cannot speak to other consumer AV equipment through the IEEE1394 bus, due to different protocols used to transmit digital data. To meet the strong demand to enable AV equipment with the capability of connecting to DVCs, NEC and Canopus developed the uPD72891/72893, which allows DVHS, Set Top Boxes (STB), and DTV to receive DV data.

In October 2000, NEC developed the 1394 LINK LSI with CPU to manage MPEG protocols and many customers have supported the world-first architecture to include the CPU. NEC now hopes that the development of the integrated DV codec (Encoder/Decoder) IEEE1394 Link LSI, specifically aimed at DV data transmission to meet the demand to make compatible the very popular DVC with other AV equipment, will further integrate consumer electronics.

About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation (NASDAQ: NIPNY) (FTSE: 6701q.l) (TYSE: 6701) is a leading provider of Internet solutions, dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of its customers in the key computer, network and electron device fields through its three market-focused in-house companies: NEC Solutions, NEC Networks and NEC Electron Devices. NEC Corporation, with its in-house companies, employs more than 150,000 people worldwide and saw net sales of 4,991 billion Yen (approx. US$48 billion) in fiscal year 1999-2000. For further information, please visit the NEC home page at: http://www.nec.com

About Canopus Corporation
Canopus Corporation, founded in 1995, designs and manufactures video solutions for the worldwide PC market. These products combine innovative hardware and software design to set new standards in performance, functionality, and reliability. Canopus Company, Ltd., is Japan's leading maker of video and graphics products for the PC. Founded in 1983, Canopus Co. offers a complete line of graphics accelerator, video capture and video editing products. http://www.canopuscorp.com

• Main specifications of the uPD72891/uPD72893

***

NOTE:

*	Technical standard to implement copy protection over IEEE1394 as set down by the Copy Protection Technical Working Group (CPTWG) and with licensing controlled by the Digital Transmission Licensing Authority (DTLA).

                        Media Contact: 
                        Daniel Mathieson        
                        NEC Corporation 
                        Tel: +81-3-3798-6511
                        Fax: +81-3-3457-7249
                        E-mail:d-mathieson@bu.jp.nec.com