PTSC Develops IGNITE Interface For ARM Processor and Peripheral Users

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 7, 2002--PTSC (Patriot Scientific Corp.) (OTCBB:PTSC - news) announced today that the company is completing its development of an Advanced High-Performance Bus interface implemented as an AHB Wrapper.

Recent statistics published in the 2002 Semiconductor IP Trends demonstrate the deep penetration of ARM® processors in today's electronic products. The PTSC IGNITE(TM) AHB Wrapper was developed to enable direct interoperability between the IGNITE processor and ARM in a co-processor system architecture, as well as with the ARM peripherals and development tool chain.

"This very competitive marketplace is continually demanding additional functionality from their embedded processors," stated Patrick Nunally, PTSC's chief technical officer. "As products evolve, additional features are added and more processing power is required. The addition of an IGNITE co-processor with the Advanced High-Performance Bus interface is an easier, faster and far less expensive answer to the need for additional processing performance without encountering the complexity and expense of replacing the main processor. The purpose here is to leverage the massive installed base of ARM and to give ARM developers an option of adding only about 5% to the size and power consumption of the ARM9 while increasing its processing capability by nearly 200%," detailed Dr. Nunally.

"This is a very simple solution that will dramatically scale the performance of the entire ARM processor family. Most importantly, the IGNITE AHB Wrapper allows ARM users to continue to employ their existing embedded debugging tool chain to the IGNITE specific application code," Dr. Nunally added.

Joey Maitra, the company's vice president of engineering, explained that after discussions with a number of electronics companies on the issue of additional performance requirements, "It was clear that they were concerned about the difficulty and expense of replacing the present processor, yet they were aware that additional processing performance is becoming mandatory. With the development of the IGNITE AHB Wrapper, the architects of those products now have an inexpensive and relatively straightforward solution to the problem of existing ARM processors reaching their maximum performance. The IGNITE processor has the ability to run in single cycle memory access mode. This eliminates the need for a cache controller. It can use its indigenous instructions, executing out of its private memory, to move and operate on data shared between the ARM and the IGNITE processors. With the addition of the IGNITE, product developers using ARM processors now have significant new options in their product roadmaps," concluded Maitra.

"We believe IGNITE with its AHB interface will be a genuine breakthrough in the delivery of more processor performance without the significant additional cost. This is a particularly important advance in a marketplace where consumers are not anticipating increasing prices for electronic devices, but they do continually expect more advanced features," concluded Dr. Nunally.

ABOUT PTSC: Founded in 1987, PTSC is an Intellectual Property (IP); Integrated Circuit (IC) and systems level embedded engineering company. The company develops, markets and enables innovative technologies to address demands in fast growing markets such as wireless devices, home appliances and gateways, set top boxes, entertainment technology, biomedical devices, as well as telemetric and industrial controllers.

PTSC's innovative IP licensing approach allows for rapid product introduction with exceptional power, performance and cost characteristics that are crucial to next generation of mobile and Internet devices. The company's foundation product is the IGNITE family of microprocessors. With the documented superior performance to other 32-bit microprocessors, its unique stack architecture provides both processing and cost efficiency. The company has long sold the IGNITE I(TM) processor in silicon both in the United States and abroad. Now, it is providing a free trial of the IGNITE core on www.ptsc.com for anyone who wishes to download it. For further information on PTSC, visit http://www.ptsc.com.

IGNITE and IGNITE I are trademarks owned by PTSC. ARM is a registered trademark of ARM Ltd. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Safe Harbor statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this news release looking forward in time involve risks and uncertainties, including the risks associated with the effect of changing economic conditions, trends in the products markets, variations in the company's cash flow, market acceptance risks, technical development risks, seasonality and other risk factors detailed in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

     Patriot Scientific Corp.
     Margaret C. Combs, 304/610-4098 or 304/645-5858