Tempow and CEVA Partner to Deliver Low Power, Low Latency True Wireless Stereo Technology for Bluetooth Earbuds

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Nov. 28, 2018 -- CEVA, Inc. (NASDAQ: CEVA), the leading licensor of signal processing platforms and artificial intelligence processors for smarter, connected devices, along with Tempow, today unveiled a collaboration to bring next-generation True Wireless Stereo (TWS) to the Bluetooth earbud mass market. The resulting joint IP solution delivers synchronized left/right audio over standard Bluetooth dual mode connected links with short latency and without the power consumption penalty associated with many of today's TWS implementations.

CEVA and Tempow will host a joint webinar titled: "Turnkey solution for Bluetooth true wireless stereo ear buds and speakers" on December 5^th. For more information and to register, please visit http://bit.ly/CEVATempow.

Audio streaming via A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) is a proven strength of Bluetooth, but with the advent of wireless earbuds, new challenges have arisen. With traditional Bluetooth stereo headphones, the headphones are seen as a single end-point. With earbuds, however, the left/right sink points are now physically separated and the Bluetooth A2DP paradigm is challenged to stream audio with the necessary degree of synchronization. To date, a number of different solutions have appeared to address this, such as audio-forwarding and eavesdropping, but these solutions often result in significant battery drain on the already power-restricted earbuds.

Tempow and CEVA are leading the charge on a new, optimized approach which eliminates the need for the inter-earbud secondary wireless link and which works with any Bluetooth AD2P enabled phone on the market. Within the phone, a straight forward software update is needed to install the Tempow Audio Profile (TAP). Within the earbuds, CEVA and Tempow have collaborated to implement a joint solution, which delivers the essential high quality audio synchronization over standard Classic Bluetooth BR/EDR links. This solution was demonstrated to a wide audience, with much praise, at the recent CEVA Technology Symposiums in Asia.

"The seamless integration of Tempow's True Wireless Earbuds (TWE) patented technology with CEVA's market leading Bluetooth IP delivers an optimal solution for the earbud stereo power consumption challenge," said Vincent Nallatamby, CEO of Tempow. "By ensuring compatibility with existing phone hardware, the TWE technology is already gaining strong traction with leading vendors."

"The collaboration with Tempow has been immensely successful in addressing a key technical challenge for earbuds," said Aviv Malinovitch, vice president and general manager of the Connectivity Business Unit at CEVA. "We anticipate that this solution will become widely adopted in the burgeoning Bluetooth earbud market."

About RivieraWaves Bluetooth

CEVA's RivieraWaves Bluetooth IP platforms provide comprehensive solutions for both Bluetooth LE and Bluetooth dual mode connectivity. Each platform consists of a hardware baseband controller, plus a feature-rich software protocol stack. A flexible radio interface allows the platforms to be deployed with either RivieraWaves RF or various partners' RF IP, enabling optimal selection of foundry and process node. All Bluetooth 5 features are supported, including LE 2Mbps data rate, Long Range and LE Advertising Extension. With more than 1.5 billion devices shipped to date and dozens of licensees, the RivieraWaves Bluetooth IP is widely deployed in consumer and IoT devices with many of the world's leading semiconductors companies and OEMs, including smartphones, tablets, wireless speakers, wireless headsets and earbuds, hearing aids and other wearables. For more information on RivieraWaves Bluetooth IP platforms, go to https://www.ceva-dsp.com/product/rivierawaves-bluetooth-platforms/.

About Tempow

Tempow is a software research and design company focused on pushing the limits of Bluetooth technology. Their first product, the Tempow Audio Profile (TAP), is an updated Bluetooth protocol allowing any Bluetooth chip to stream audio on multiple Bluetooth audio outputs simultaneously. It is a 100% software solution, and works with any brand of Bluetooth speaker on any chip. The company closed a Series A round of venture funding led by Balderton Capital, and has global partnerships that bring Tempow-enhanced Bluetooth to millions around the world. Tempow is headquartered in Paris, France with extended operations in Seoul, Korea and Shenzhen, China. More information is available at https://tempow.com/.

About CEVA, Inc.

CEVA is the leading licensor of signal processing platforms and artificial intelligence processors for a smarter, connected world. We partner with semiconductor companies and OEMs worldwide to create power-efficient, intelligent and connected devices for a range of end markets, including mobile, consumer, automotive, industrial and IoT. Our ultra-low-power IPs for vision, audio, communications and connectivity include comprehensive DSP-based platforms for LTE/LTE-A/5G baseband processing in handsets, infrastructure and cellular IoT (NB-IoT and Cat-M1) enabled devices, advanced imaging and computer vision for any camera-enabled device, audio/voice/speech and ultra-low power always-on/sensing applications for multiple IoT markets. For artificial intelligence, we offer a family of AI processors capable of handling the complete gamut of neural network workloads, on-device. For connectivity, we offer the industry's most widely adopted IPs for Bluetooth (low energy and dual mode) and Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n), Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) and Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) up to 4x4). Visit us at www.ceva-dsp.com

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