LG Electronics Licenses ARM Core for Use in Digital TV Applications

The Company Also Licenses ARM PrimeCell Peripherals to Speed SoC Development and Deployment

CAMBRIDGE, England and SEOUL, South Korea, July 23

LG Electronics is a global leader of the DTV core technology, especially in chipset and data broadcasting S/W. LG Electronics developed the world's first DTV chipset in 1997 and continued to upgrade its performance while reducing the number of chips. The chipsets have been successfully applied to a variety of DTV products. LG Electronics has also been leading the DTV market by introducing the world's first DTV products, such as the 60" PDP TV ('98), 30" LCD TV ('01) and HD-PVR set-top box with embedded HDD ('02).

LG Electronics chose to license the ARM1022E microprocessor core because of its excellent power consumption and performance credentials relative to its die size. On a 0.13u process, the die size is 6.9mm2 and consumes 0.6mW/MHz at 1V (typical) while delivering 500 MIPS. Another important factor in licensing this microprocessor core is the support that is offered for the ARM1022E core. The core is supported under the ARM Foundry Program and also by a number of third parties that offer, for example, development tools and boards, operating systems and application software.

LG Electronics has also licensed the ARM PrimeCell peripherals to aid in the rapid development and deployment of complete system-on-chip (SoC) solutions. The ARM PrimeCell peripherals are re-usable soft IP macrocells developed to enable the rapid assembly of SoC designs.

"DTV is a very important emerging digital consumer product for customers as well as LG Electronics. We would like to provide the best DTV at an affordable price so as to accelerate the transition to DTV," said Jong-Seok Park, director, DTV Lab, LG Electronics. "ARM microprocessor cores are widely recognized as having excellent performance versus power consumption and die size characteristics. We licensed the ARM1022E microprocessor core and PrimeCell peripherals to enable us to achieve our objective of developing DTV SoC on our existing excellent DTV technology. We also expect that there will be applications beyond DTV, such as set-top boxes, DVD players and home networking equipment, where ARM technology can be deployed to augment and enhance our technology."

"Asia has been known for a long time as a design center for a wide range of consumer electronics goods. However, in recent times it has made great leaps in the sheer excellence of the technology it produces and LG Electronics is one of the companies that has driven this trend," said Sam Kim, president, ARM Korea. "The ARM1022E core is one of the best-performing microprocessor cores currently available on the market. LG Electronics' licensing of this technology will help it stay at the peak of innovation."

About LG Electronics

Established in 1958 as Korea's pioneer consumer electronics company, LG Electronics is a global major player of electronics and Information & Communications products with over 55,000 employees working in 72 overseas subsidiaries and marketing units around the world as well as its business units in Korea. The company is turning its innovative efforts to gain leadership in Digital TVs, LCD Monitors, Home appliances, Mobile handsets and Telecommunication equipment. LG Electronics' goal is to enable the intelligent networking of digital products that will make consumers' lives easier than ever. Further information is located at www.lge.com

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 (SoC) designs to leading international electronics companies. ARM also provides comprehensive support required in developing a complete system. ARM's microprocessor cores are rapidly becoming a 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