Silicon Light Machines Receives $8.75 Million inFinancing; Also Announces E-Cinema Visionary...

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 7, 1999--

Silicon Light Machines, a developer of a new silicon chip-based display architecture designed to spawn a revolution in high-performance HDTV (High Definition Television) and Electronic Cinema, today announced that it has received $8.75

In addition, Richard M. Wolfe, an electronic cinema and HDTV visionary, is joining Silicon Light Machine's board of directors.

"This round of financing demonstrates a high level of confidence in Silicon Light Machines' technology and our progress toward initial product development," said Dave Corbin, CEO of Silicon Light Machines. "We have several promising joint development agreements in place and are now positioned to further demonstrate the clear on-screen advantages of our technology and architecture, including high resolution, high contrast, wide dynamic range, and expanded color gamut."

E-Cinema/HDTV Pioneer Richard Wolfe Joins Board

Richard Wolfe, a high-profile 30-year veteran of the broadcast television and film industries, has joined Silicon Light Machine's Board of Directors. Wolfe is president of Hi-Vision America, Inc., an HDTV consulting firm; and Exhibition Video International, an electronic cinema distribution company, both of Hollywood, Calif.

Wolfe was formerly vice president of technology and video engineering for 20th Century Fox and VP of technology for Satcorp, Inc., where he was responsible for the design and installation of the first e-cinema network that delivered HDTV video via satellite to theaters located on the campuses of colleges and universities across the United States.

He is a distinguished member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), where he is a member of the society's national board of governors and a member of the SMPTE working groups on "High Definition Electronic Projection" and "Electronic Cinema." Wolfe is also an owner and past president of WBNS-TV/10-CBS Columbus and WTHR-TV/13-NBC Indianapolis, which have been the first stations to implement DTV/HDTV in Ohio and Indiana.

"I have been following the progress of electronic cinema for the past 18 years," said Wolfe. "While several digital display technologies have made excellent progress toward emulating the quality of film, no technology has been able to recreate the complete film experience. The scalability to very high resolution, deeply saturated colors, and wide dynamic range possible with Silicon Light Machine's GLV technology is the most promising approach yet to making electronic cinema a reality."

About Silicon Light Machines and its GLV Technology

Silicon Light Machines has developed a new chip-based display architecture expected to provide a boost to the high-definition television market, spawn a digital revolution in movie projection, and launch the next generation of high-performance desktop displays.

Especially promising is its small, linear display device based on its Grating Light Valve technology, which was first patented at Stanford University. Each pixel in the linear array is capable of reproducing precise grayscale values at the rate of millions of times per second -- thousands of times faster than any other light modulator technology.

This fundamental GLV performance is at the heart of Silicon Light Machines' scanned linear GLV array architecture, which can cost-effectively create very high-resolution images. This promising new architecture has been successfully demonstrated in a front-projection display system prototype, and is being applied to certain high-performance print applications.

Silicon Light Machines first presented the scanned linear GLV array architecture at the prestigious 1998 Society for International Display (SID) Symposium. The invited paper that the company presented will be honored at this year's SID Symposium (on May 19, 1999) as the best paper of the conference, underscoring keen interest in the GLV technology and the impact that the scanned linear architecture can have on the projection display industry.

Silicon Light Machines is a privately held company backed by the Mayfield Fund, Institutional Venture Partners, Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation, and individual investors. The company is located at 385 Moffett Park Drive, Suite 115, Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1208; Telephone 408/541-1990; Fax 408/541-1244; Web www.siliconlight.com.

Note to Editors: Silicon Light Machines, Grating Light Valve and GLV are trademarks of Silicon Light Machines.