Agilent Technologies announced a new image pipe processor that enables digital camera-like image quality for cell phone cameras. The image pipe contains over 10 enhancements including automatic lighting detection and advanced exposure control to produce sharp, vivid images even in low light. It is integrated into Agilent's new system-on-chip image sensors featuring enhanced-performance pixels. The tightly coupled design of the image pipe and sensor results in better color accuracy, contrast, and adaptive rendering compared to third-party graphics processors. The image pipe will be included in Agilent's new sensors in the first half of 2006 to address the increasing demand for higher quality pictures from mobile devices.

1. Agilent Technologies Announces Innovative
Image Pipe for Camera Phones; Processor
Enables Digital-Camera-Like Image Quality
for Cell-Phone Cameras in All Lighting
Conditions
November 28, 2005 10:00 AM Eastern Standard Time
PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 28, 2005--Agilent Technologies Inc.
(NYSE:A) today announced an innovative image pipe processor that allows mobile phone and
computing devices to take lifelike, rich color photos in all lighting conditions. The image pipe is
integrated in Agilent's new family of system-on-chip (SOC) sensors, which feature the enhanced-
performance (EP) pixel architecture.
What sets Agilent's image pipe apart from existing image signal processors (ISPs) is the degree
of built-in processing intelligence and adaptability to lighting conditions, which results in
exceptional image quality. The image pipe accommodates a wide range of lighting conditions,
from indoor to sunlight to fluorescent, and can enhance overexposed or underexposed images.
“Image pipe processors make the raw sensor picture pleasing to the human eye”
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The Agilent image pipe contains more than 10 new design enhancements, including proprietary
Agilent innovations such as automatic illuminant detection and highly advanced exposure
control, pixel correction and contrast control. The image pipe is also specifically tuned to
Agilent's enhanced performance (EP) pixel architecture, and is part of the company's EP-based
SOC product line. The EP pixel architecture reduces dark current and noise, provides unmatched
low image lag and removes the lens shading effect to offer breakthrough low-light CMOS sensor
performance. Agilent's EP sensor matches CCD sensor results by producing bright, high-quality
images in extremely low-light conditions.
"Image pipe processors make the raw sensor picture pleasing to the human eye," said Feisal
Mosleh, director of Mobile Imaging Marketing in Agilent's Semiconductor Products Group.
"This is achieved in digital still cameras by invoking a host of auto functions, such as exposure
control and auto white balance. These same functions are not generally as advanced in camera
phone ISPs. Agilent's image pipe raises the bar with a streamlined, low-power ISP designed to
produce sharper, more vivid images than past camera phones and rivals those from good digital
still cameras. Until now, no camera phone ISP has been able to behave so much like its bigger
sibling, the digital still camera ISP."

2. Unlike many third-party graphics processors, Agilent's image pipe is tightly coupled with the
CMOS sensor, resulting in better colors, higher contrast, truer skin tones, and picture rendering
that is highly adaptive to varying lighting, shadows and movement.
"We believe the market will increasingly demand higher picture quality," said Chris Crotty,
senior analyst, consumer electronics, with iSuppli Corp. "By working on enhancing the picture
quality of its image sensor/processor chips, Agilent is addressing an important industry trend."
Image Pipe Features
The Agilent image pipe is the industry's most advanced camera phone ISP design in terms of
perceptual image quality. It can be delivered with seventh-generation JPEG compression and
enables visually pleasing prints in a 4" x 6" format. The image pipe includes a special effects
generator, advanced exposure control, true color image processing and enhanced automatic pixel
correction. It also offers these key features:
-- Plausible illuminant (adapts to the ambient light), an automatic illuminant detector that
improves auto white balance for true color accuracy (1).
-- Adaptive tone mapping that provides dynamic range expansion to deliver better contrast and
richer, more vivid colors (1).
-- Advanced exposure control that offers flexible exposure settings (vs. conventional auto
exposure) to produce brighter non-flash images (1).
-- Enhanced automatic pixel correction that is 5X better than conventional bad pixel amelioration
(1).
-- Adaptive compression that ensures the best-quality JPEG compression with no dropped frames
(1).
-- Programmable dual LED and Xenon flash strobe support (1).
-- Locally adaptive color noise suppression (1).
-- Smooth digital zoom to emulate an optical zoom movement (1).
-- Special-effects generator with "blue people," black and white, sepia, solarization and 20 other
special effects.
-- Anti-vignetting correction for lens shading effects.
-- Picture sharpening and auto-flicker correction.
Availability

3. The image pipe will be included in Agilent's new EP megapixel and multi-mega-pixel SOC
sensors in the first half of 2006. Further information about Agilent's EP-based CMOS image
sensors and image pipe processors is available at www.agilent.com/view/imaging.
Agilent's Mobile Appliance Solutions
Agilent is a leading supplier of semiconductor solutions for today's highly integrated, feature-
rich mobile handsets. In addition to CMOS image sensors and processors that enable camera
phones, notebooks and mobile cams, Agilent provides FBAR filters and E-pHEMT and HBT
power amplifiers that save battery life and help shrink handset size, infrared transceivers for
transmitting data, surface-mount LEDs that provide backlighting styling options, proximity
sensors that automate the speakerphone, and ambient light photo sensors that save battery life by
controlling backlighting. No other component vendor offers all of these solutions for mobile
appliances. More information about Agilent's family of mobile appliance semiconductor
solutions is available at www.agilent.com/view/mobile.
About Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) is the world's premier measurement company and a
technology leader in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis. The
company's 27,000 employees serve customers in more than 110 countries. Agilent had net
revenue of $5.1 billion in fiscal 2005. Information about Agilent is available on the Web at
www.agilent.com.
(1) Agilent proprietary advantage.
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