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CREATIVE LABS DRIVES INTO THE EXPANDING CD-RW MARKET

New Blaster® CD-RW 4224 Provides an Easy-To-Use Solution For Burning CD Media, Copying and Archiving on CDR and CDRewritable Media

MILPITAS, Calif. - May 17, 1999 - Creative Labs, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd. (NASDAQ: CREAF), the renowned innovator of market-leading multimedia solutions for personal entertainment, announced today the latest addition to its CD family of products, Blaster CD-RW 4224. The Blaster CD-RW 4224 lets consumers copy, distribute and save music or database files to a recordable CD-R or CD-RW disc. The Blaster CD-RW 4224 stores up to 650MB of data or over 74 minutes of audio on a single CD-R or CD-RW disc, offering customers the perfect solution for archiving files, storing large databases or compiling MP3 files.

The Blaster CD-RW 4224 allows users to customize personal CD compilations by recording their favorite songs from various CDs to a single disc. Digital audio enthusiasts will save valuable hard drive space by downloading MP3 files and storing them directly to CD-R discs. By using inexpensive CD-R and CD-RW discs that are easily read by standard CD-ROM drives, the Blaster CD-RW delivers a low-cost alternative to sharing files at a fraction of the cost of Zip disks.

"With the proliferation of large multimedia files and downloadable music, today's PC users need a way to create, backup, copy and archive data," said Chris Kukshtel, senior brand manager at Creative. "By drawing on our expertise in delivering exceptional multimedia technology and our ability to deliver solid, high-quality products, Creative has arrived at a solution that meets the needs of mainstream consumers."

Creative's new CD-RW drive can write CD-R media at 4X, CD-RW media at 2X speeds, and read CD-ROMs at up to 24X (3,600KB/sec), making it fast and simple for users to create and transfer documents or music files. In addition, Blaster CD-RW supports Direct Memory Access (DMA) mode for faster transfer rates and lower CPU utilization. The Blaster CD-RW reads a varity of disc types including, CD-Audio, CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, Photo CD, CD-R, CD-RW and Video CD. The CD-RW looks, installs, and works like a CD-ROM, so not only can users create CDs, but they can also play audio CDs, run popular applications, or read other CD-R and CD-RW discs.

Additional Features and Benefits

• Allows consumers to drag and drop data directly to CDs using a CD-RW rewritable disc for flexibility in copying and deleting files
• CD-RW and CD-R disks store up to 650MB of data for archiving and backing-up important documents
• Users can create and compile music and audio tracks stored as MP3, MIDI and .WAV files, freeing up valuable hard disk space
• The Blaster CD-RW 4224 offers users low-cost solution for distributing and sharing files by utilizing CD-R and CD-RW disks
• Blaster CD-RW 4224 bundled software includes Nero 4.0, a high performance CD recording software that enables users to store and back-up files and create CDs in a quick and user-friendly way and Prassi abCD for writing data to CD-RW media using drag-and drop drive letter access

Pricing and Availability
The Blaster CD-RW 4224 is available through Creative's extensive network of distributors and resellers worldwide at an estimated street price of US$229.99.

Note to Editor: Please visit our online press room at www.creative.com/pressroom for news releases, screen shots, reviewers guides and white papers about Creative's entire line of multimedia products.

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This announcement relates to products whose launch are in the United States of America. The product names, contents, prices and availability may differ elsewhere in the world according to local factors and requirements.

Sound Blaster and Blaster are registered trademarks of Creative Technology Ltd. in the U.S. and other countries.