News Releases

01/04/2006

HITACHI TO EXHIBIT A WIDE RANGE OF INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGIES AT CES 2006

-- Hitachi Technologies Spur Advancements in HDTV, HD Recorders, DVD Camcorders, Storage & Personal Authentication --

CES, LAS VEGAS - January 4, 2006 - Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), a leading global electronics company, this week will demonstrate its engineering innovations with a wide range of products and technologies at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show in the Las Vegas Convention Center South Hall 2 Hitachi Booth #25342.

New Hitachi products on display will include innovations in plasma HDTV technologies, including the industry’s first 55-inch full specification 1080p plasma display panel; advancements in LCD display technologies, such as a compact and ergonomic 3D LCD panel; new hard disk drive recording technologies, including iVDR, Blu-ray and the world’s first 1-Terabyte high-definition hard disk drive recorder; in addition to an all new DVD camcorder line up. CES 2006 show attendees will also see a multi-stream GUI TV interface, advancements in storage hardware and a personal authentication system that relies on an individual’s finger vein pattern for incredibly accurate identification.

“Hitachi is very pleased to be back on the floor of CES to present its lineup of leading-edge products at the premier show for innovative consumer electronic offerings,” said Hiroaki Nakanishi, Hitachi, Ltd.’s Chief Executive for North America. “We continue to produce industry advancing products through our core technologies that are unmatched in the industry today.”

Hitachi will provide a technology demonstration of the industry’s first 55-inch full-specification HD 1080p plasma display panel, which combines the best advantages of plasma, including incredible color reproduction, rich black levels, rapid motion response and wide-viewing angles, with a full high-definition pixel resolution of 1920 x 1080 with progressive scanning in the most popular 55-inch screen size for today’s home theater installations.

New Hitachi products for 2006 will include Plasma and LCD televisions with built-in HD recording functionality via an internal hard disk recorder. The Plasma HDTV with HDD and 37-inch LCD HDTV with HDD enable easy recording with a remote control and come with two tuners so customers can record an HD broadcast in the background while watching another. Additional features include a time shift function, slow motion playback and a one-touch scheduler to automatically set a weekly schedule with one touch of a button while watching the program.

Additional HDTVs in the booth will include the company’s stunning UltraVision Plasma 42- and 55-inch HDS52 series models with ALiS technology and the VirtualHD 1080p II Video Processor, the VF820 series of 50-, 55-, and 60-inch rear projection LCD sets with High-Contrast Dual Focus Lens System with Ultra-Compact LCD 3-Panel Light Engine, the 37HDL52 LCD flat panel with super In-Plane Switching technology and a high-performance 55-inch Professional Plasma Monitor with WXGA Wide-Aperture pixel technology.

The HDPJ52 HD LCD front projector, with exclusive Hitachi Hi-2 Dual Iris System and Super-Focus Quattro ELD Glass Lens and a stunning contrast ratio of 7000:1, will also be on display, as will the CP-X255 LCD projector, which features an RJ-45 Ethernet port, allowing for network control, maintenance and scheduling. This device offers a brightness of 2,000 ANSI lumens and XGA (1024 x 768) resolution and a contrast ratio of 400:1.

Hitachi’s sixth generation UltraVision® DVD Camcorders offer four new models, the 3.3 mega-pixel DZGX3300A, the 2.12 mega-pixel DZGX3200A, the 1.3 mega-pixel DZGX3100A and the 680K pixel DZBX35A offer blockbuster features for an unprecedented value. Advanced features include full support for the most popular DVD formats, including DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM and for the first time ever, DVD+RW, making this camcorder product line-up the first to support all four formats.

User-friendly features include an industry-leading “Quick Start”, half the start time required by previous camcorders, and a sleep/restart battery saver function that puts the camcorder to sleep to save battery power between recordings. All four models also feature a large 2.7-inch 16 x 9 widescreen LCD, super-digital zoom, video-to-photo frame grab, SD/MMC memory card support, quick mode EZ menu system and a One Touch finalize button to ensure quick and easy access to this essential last step, creating DVD player-ready discs in an instant.

The new DVD Camcorders also offer first-time ever PC and Mac compatibility, composite and S-video inputs, USB 2.0 connections and Hitachi’s unique Advanced Image Processing with Over-sampling High-Resolution Capture that utilizes the camcorder’s entire capacity to create a better picture at a higher resolution than ever before.

Additional Hitachi products on display include:

High-Definition DVD Recorder & Blu-ray Disc HDD Recorder - Hitachi will display the world’s first 1-Terabyte hard drive and dual digital recorder capable of recording two simultaneous HD broadcasts. This breakthrough device enables 128 hours of digital recording or 1,700 hours in extended play mode. The Blu-ray Disc HDD Recorder is a multi-drive supporting all Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD formats. The recorder provides a user-friendly interface and records HD broadcasts in original quality, providing more than two hours of HD program recording onto a single Blu-ray disc.

Travelstar, Endurastar & Microdrive 3K8 Mobile Hard Drives - Hitachi’s line of mobile storage products include the rugged Travelstar line-up offering the 1.8-inch Travelstar C4K60 60GB drive, providing ultra-high capacity for the mobile digital consumer; the 2.5-inch Travelstar 5K100 100GB drive, providing outstanding non-operating shock features; and the 2.5-inch Travelstar 7K100 100GB drive, the industry’s only second-generation 7200 rpm HDD for desktop-like performance. The 2.5-inch Endurastar J4K30, designed specifically to perform in extreme temperature environments and perfect for automotive and entertainment functions, is offered in both 20GB and 30GB capacities. The Microdrive 3K8 comes in removable or embedded configurations and is ideal for integration into mobile phones or ultra-miniature CE devices.

Deskstar & Ultrastar Hard Drives - Offering the world’s highest-capacity drive, the 3.5-inch Deskstar 7K500 is ideal not only for standard PC systems but also for ATA entry-servers, personal video recorders and other non-PC computing requirements. Also featured is the Ultrastar, the highest-performing hard disk drive ever at up to 15,000 rpm and an average seek time of 3.6 milliseconds – an ideal solution for mission-critical, enterprise-computing applications.

LCD Monitor & Display Products - Hitachi will demonstrate the Ergo-3 Panel, a compact 3D display that uses a method involving overlapped images to produce a 3D image. The brilliant 3D display, which significantly reduces eyestrain, is cost effective and will be targeted at automobile navigation systems. The LCD Monitor with Edge-Illuminated RGB-LED Backlight provides the slim design and vivid colors ideal for high-end multimedia applications including true-color image processing. Also on display will be the T-17SLX, a 17-inch interactive pen-driven tablet that can track 125 points per second. It offers SXGA resolution, a USB PC interface and comes bundled with StarBoard Software 6.3.

Finger Vein Authentication Technology - Also on display will be Hitachi’s innovative Finger Vein Authentication technology, the most advanced personal authentication system worldwide. This revolutionary biometric technology uses near-infrared beams to scan the unique pattern of crisscrossing veins in the human finger and then match the captured image with a pre-registered vein pattern profile to verify individual identity. The system is fast, enabling highly accurate and reliable personal identification in approximately one second. Finger vein authentication technology has already been adopted by banks in Japan, while applications also abound in door access control, computer login, national and international security at present, and even automobile and cell phone access in the future.

VisionCube and Professional Display Products - Hitachi will also display several high-performance business solutions including the VisionCube ES50, the next generation in rear-projection digital walls equipped with an LCoS three-chip (RGB) optical engine featuring high contrast, high-quality images with superior resolution (SXGA+) and color reproduction. Along with the VisionCube, Hitachi will display its CMP5000WXU professional plasma 50-inch digital 16:9 HDTV monitor, a big screen delivering unparalleled performance from both video and computer sources with sharp, real-life image quality utilizing sophisticated color and high-resolution filters and an optional video card enabling component and DVI-D inputs and HDTV-compatibility. Also at CES, Hitachi’s CP-X255 LCD projector allows for remote monitoring of numerous projectors from a single point yet is small enough and light enough to move from boardroom to boardroom while featuring tremendous power for its compact size, boasting 2,000 ANSI lumens of brightness and a 400:1 contrast ratio.

Liquid Cooling System for AVPC - With more than 200 patents worldwide, this system provides better cooling performance for audio video PCs and other digital appliances in a very reliable, whisper-quiet package. Originally developed to accommodate mainframes and supercomputers, Hitachi’s system remains maintenance free for over five years of operation.

Embedded Database Entier - Hitachi will also show Embedded Database Entier, a sophisticated database management software package for embedded systems. The product follows a relational data model compliant with SQL92. It has an extremely small footprint, improved data integrity and advanced search functions including high-performance geographic search and text search.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 347,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2004 (ended March 31, 2005) consolidated sales totaled 9,027.0 billion yen ($84.4 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company’s Website at www.hitachi.com.