ARM and MediaTek Partner to Bring RISC Technology to Taiwan

CAMBRIDGE, England and TAIPEI, Taiwan, July 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ARM [(LSE: ARM); (Nasdaq: ARMHY - News)], the industry's leading provider of 16/32-bit embedded RISC processor solutions, and MediaTek Inc., the world's leading supplier of ICs and chipsets to the optical storage industry, today announced that MediaTek has licensed the ARM7TDMI® microprocessor core for use in its new products.

MediaTek was formed in 1997 and is one of the world's leading semiconductor companies. MediaTek's range of ICs and associated products can be found in many of the world's CD-ROM, DVD-ROM and CD-R/RW drives, as well as other consumer products, such as DVD players.

By licensing ARM® microprocessor technology, MediaTek plans to use ARM's expertise in low-power, small-footprint microprocessor technology in new product development.

"Taiwan is well known for the competitiveness of its technology industry," said Philip Lu, president, ARM Taiwan. "By working with MediaTek, ARM will add the experience and expertise it has gained in low-power RISC technology to MediaTek's new products."

"In taking the decision to expand our business, it was essential that we work with leading technology companies such as ARM," said Ming Kai Tsai, chairman of MediaTek. "Power, time to market and above all, low cost, is essential to Taiwanese manufacturers and our partnership with ARM will allow us to meet these requirements."

About MediaTek Inc.

MediaTek Inc. is the world's largest chipset supplier of CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-RW and DVD players. Founded in 1997, MediaTek is now one of the world's top 10 fabless IC companies, with dedicated substantial resources in research and development of comprehensive IC optical storage facilities. Headquartered at Hsin-Chu, Taiwan, MediaTek's common stock is traded on the TSE.

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 .