NEWS RELEASE TRANSMITTED BY CCNMatthews

FOR:  SPECTRUM SIGNAL PROCESSING INC.

TSX SYMBOL:  SSY
NASDAQ SYMBOL:  SSPI

MARCH 17, 2005 - 10:00 ET

Spectrum Signal Processing flexComm SDR-3000 Platform 
Selected for Wideband Electronic Warfare Application

BURNABY, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(CCNMatthews - March 17, 2005) - Spectrum 
Signal Processing Inc. (TSX:SSY)(NASDAQ:SSPI), today announced that its 
flexComm SDR-3000 platform has been selected by a leading European 
defense contractor for the development of a compact electronic warfare 
platform.

The contractor will use Spectrum's flexComm SDR-3000 software 
reconfigurable platform to provide advanced signal processing and 
transceiver functions in its next generation mobile ultrawideband 
jamming system. The system will incorporate Spectrum's SDR-3000 platform 
in a compact, 2U configuration. The customer purchased two systems 
valued at approximately $100,000 each for its development purposes and 
expects to purchase an additional nine units for delivery in late 2005 
or early 2006 for a lead end-customer deployment. The platform is 
expected to be marketed internationally by the contractor as a catalogue 
product to NATO-friendly customers.

"Electronic warfare applications have become an increasingly attractive 
market opportunity for our software reconfigurable products, including 
the SDR-3000," said Dan Simard, Managing Director of Spectrum's European 
operations. "Much of our know-how in signals intelligence and military 
communications is readily applicable to the electronic warfare market. 
This expertise, combined with our ability to package the functionality 
of our SDR-3000 into customized, deployment-scaled platforms, was the 
key to our success in this design-in."

Spectrum's flexComm SDR-3000 is comprised of a heterogeneous processing 
platform incorporating field programmable gate arrays from Xilinx(R) and 
PowerPC(R) processors from Freescale(TM) and IBM. RapidIO(TM) provides a 
high bandwidth interconnect fabric between the processors, as well as 
the input/output functionality to the processors, to ensure efficient 
use of the processing resources. Software development tools include 
Spectrum's quicComm(TM) hardware abstraction layer to facilitate 
algorithm partitioning and programming, and a real-time operating system.

ABOUT SPECTRUM SIGNAL PROCESSING INC.

Spectrum Signal Processing Inc. (TSX:SSY)(NASDAQ:SSPI) is a leading 
supplier of software defined platforms for defense electronics 
applications. Spectrum's products and services are optimized for 
military communications, signals intelligence, surveillance, electronic 
warfare and satellite communications applications. Spectrum's 
integrated, application-ready products provide its customers with 
compelling time-to-market and performance advantages while mitigating 
program risk and cost parameters. Spectrum Signal Processing (USA) Inc., 
based in Columbia, Maryland, provides applications engineering services 
and modified commercial-off-the-shelf platforms to the US Government, 
its allies and its prime contractors. For more information on Spectrum 
and its flexComm product line, please visit www.spectrumsignal.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements related to the 
Spectrum Signal Processing Inc. flexComm product line. These statements 
are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private 
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements 
involve risks and uncertainties, including the timely development and 
acceptance of Spectrum's new products, the impact of competitive 
products and pricing, availability of components, changing market 
conditions and the other risks detailed from time to time in other 
company filings. Actual results may differ materially from those 
projected. These forward-looking statements represent the company's 
judgment as of the date of this release and Spectrum may or may not 
update these forward-looking statements in the future. Readers are 
referred to Spectrum's assumptions and risk factors set out in the most 
current Form 20-F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and 
the British Columbia Securities Commission.

(TM)flexComm and quicComm are trademarks of Spectrum Signal Processing 
Inc.

(R) Xilinx is a registered trademark of Xilinx, Inc.

(R)PowerPC is a registered trademark of International Business Machines 
Corporation.

(TM) RapidIO is a trademark of the RapidIO Trade Association.

(TM) Freescale is a trademark of the Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.

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