Faraday Extends Licensing Agreement for ARM Technology; The Two Companies Collaborate on Cost-Effective SoC Designs

CAMBRIDGE, England, and HSINCHU, Taiwan, Jan. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ARM (LSE: ARM; Nasdaq: ARMHY), the industry's leading provider of 16/32-bit embedded RISC processor solutions, and Faraday Technology (TW: 5404), Asia-Pacific's leading IC design service and IP provider, today announced an extension of their relationship with a licensing and collaboration agreement which will enable Faraday to develop a full range of solutions based on an implementation of the ARMv4 architecture.

"The importance of RISC CPUs in a wide spectrum of portable applications, such as mobile phones, PDAs, wireless communications and multimedia, is equivalent to the significance of the CISC CPU in the PC market, and the potential for RISC CPUs for mass production is much greater," said H.P. Lin, president of Faraday Technology. "Through this agreement, and our technical collaboration with ARM, we will be able to provide our IC design and system customers in the Asia-Pacific region with a full range of ARM® technology- based solutions, from ASIC design services to complete platform solutions, using Faraday IP together with the ARM architecture.

"In the near future, we expect that with the help of RISC-based solutions jointly promoted by ARM and Faraday, many new SoC design customers will be able to devise creative niche products in new territories," added Lin.

"ARM has been working in the Asia-Pacific market for some time and believes that Taiwan's IC design industry will play an important role in the global semiconductor market," said Jamie Urquhart, chief strategy officer, ARM. "ARM is committed to providing its industry-leading RISC IP with stronger local design service support and comprehensive platform IP solutions through collaboration with leading IC design companies like Faraday."

"As one of the leading IC design service providers in Asia-Pacific, Faraday has accumulated many years of CPU technology and design service experience. We see Faraday as an important Partner in helping ARM to further penetrate the Asia-Pacific market," added Urquhart.

Designs based on Faraday's implementation FA500 will be available in the third quarter of 2002. The technology will be offered to Faraday's customers in the form of either "SoC ASIC Design Service" or "Application-Oriented RISC-based Platform IP." FA500 customers will be able to take advantage of the ARM development environment.

Faraday is also a member of ATAP(TM), the ARM technology access program and provides a full range of ARM core-based SoC design services for ARM's existing Partners.

About ARM

ARM is the industry's leading provider of 16/32-bit embedded RISC microprocessor solutions. The company licenses its high-performance, low-cost, power-efficient RISC processors, peripherals and system-on-chip designs to leading international electronics companies. ARM also provides comprehensive support required in developing a complete system. ARM's microprocessor cores are rapidly becoming the volume RISC standard in such markets as portable communications, hand-held computing, multimedia digital consumer and embedded solutions. More information on ARM is available at www.arm.com .

About Faraday

Faraday Technology Corporation has provided remarkable ASIC design services and valuable IPs (Intellectual Properties) for customers ranging from small start-ups to large multinational IC design houses and system houses. Today, Faraday Technology Corporation is the largest organization of its type in the Asia-Pacific area, with more than 350 employees and annual revenue of 2.4 billion NT Dollars in 2001. Headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan, Faraday has branch offices around the world, including the U.S.A., Japan and Europe. More information on Faraday is available at www.faraday.com.tw .

ARM is a registered trademark of ARM Limited. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. "ARM" is used to represent ARM Holdings plc (LSE: ARM; Nasdaq: ARMHY); its operating company ARM Limited; and the regional subsidiaries ARM INC.; ARM KK; ARM Korea, ARM Taiwan; and ARM France SAS.

For further information, please contact Michelle Spencer of ARM, +44 1628 427780, michelle.spencer@arm.com; or Patrick Hall of The Townsend Agency, +1-858-457-4888 ext. 112, phall@townsendagency.com, for ARM.