Loud and Clear: Akustica Digital Microphones Showcase Voice in New Mobile PCs

PITTSBURGH, PA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- February 21, 2007 -- Akustica, Inc., pioneer in acoustic system-on-chip solutions, today announced that TabletKiosk's family of Sahara Slate PCs are shipping with an embedded "dual array" of its AKU2001 digital microphones. The Sahara Slate i412T, i440T, and i440D are the first tablet PCs using Akustica digital microphones.

The AKU2001 is a single-chip digital-output microphone manufactured using Akustica's patented Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. The small form factor and digital output of the AKU2001 deliver the ideal microphone solution for enhancing the voice-input quality in a tablet PC.

"Akustica's digital microphones bring a new level of voice input quality to the Sahara Slate PC and ensure that users will never experience the irritating buzzing noises that traditional microphones often pick up from a nearby cellphone or even from the WiFi antennas and power supplies that are also located in the slate itself," said Davin Yuknis, Akustica's vice president of marketing and product management. "Our digital microphones have also enabled TabletKiosk to leverage the audio features available in the new Microsoft Vista™ operating system which use multiple microphones to further enhance input sound quality. The overall result is crystal clear voice input for VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) applications and a higher degree of speech recognition accuracy."

The Sahara Slate PCs are TabletKiosk's new series of slate-style computers designed especially for business users in retail, restaurants, casino operations, warehousing, control systems and healthcare. Users can input data directly on the tablet's screen with either a digital pen or a touch. Additionally, the tiny microphone arrays, neatly embedded in the bezel of the tablet's 12.1-inch thin-film transistor liquid-crystal display, provide a high quality audio input solution that lets users speak into the computer -- an important element because the tablet PCs do not have an integrated keyboard.

"Embedding AKU2001 microphone arrays in our family of Sahara Slate PCs ensures that users will have the ability to make voice annotations and internet-based phone calls that sound cleaner and better as well as do dictations using speech recognition applications that are more accurate than ever before," said Gail Levy, TabletKiosk's director of marketing. "This technology is a competitive advantage for us -- and for our customers in vertical markets with an emphasis on productivity."

Where to Buy

Manufacturer's suggested retail price for the Sahara Slate PC i440D starts at $2,295 with an Intel Core Duo L2500 processor, 1.0 Gigabyte (GB) memory, 80 GB hard-disk drive and Windows Vista Business.

TabletKiosk is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sand Dune Ventures Inc., a privately held technology incubator. The company produces slate-style Tablet and Ultra-Mobile PCs marketed through an authorized reseller channel and directly through the company website. For more information, visit www.TabletKiosk.com.

About Akustica

Founded in 2001, Akustica, Inc. is a privately held company based in Pittsburgh, PA. Manufactured using their revolutionary CMOS MEMS technology, Akustica's Sensory Silicon™ products enable electronic devices to sense and respond to the world around them. By leveraging standard CMOS processes and MEMS technology, Akustica's acoustic system-on-chip solutions combine the functionality of transducers with microelectronics and software onto a single chip. Only Akustica's CMOS MEMS microphones -- pioneered by Akustica chief technologist and co-founder Ken Gabriel, Ph.D., during his tenure at Carnegie Mellon University -- enable single-chip solutions with arrays of transducers and integrated signal processing that disrupt both conventional microphone and speaker technologies. Smaller and more reliable than electret condenser microphones, Akustica's silicon microphones can be customized with advanced sound-capture features and noise-reduction capabilities. Akustica digital output microphones are now reaching the market in commercial volumes, helping to fulfill demand for improved voice input in a host of voice-enabled applications, from Internet telephony on notebooks to PC camera modules and mobile phones.

More information about Akustica can be obtained via Phone: (412)390-1730, Fax (412)390-1737, Email: contact@akustica.com or Web: www.akustica.com.

Akustica and the Akustica logo are registered trademarks and Sensory Silicon is a trademark of Akustica, Inc. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Contact Information: PRESS CONTACTS (For Editors Only): AKUSTICA, INC. Marcie Weinstein Phone: 412/390-1730 Email: mweinstein@akustica.com VETRANO COMMUNICATIONS Lisa Figlioli Phone: 203/625-0082 Email: l.figlioli@vetrano.com