NXP and TSMC Deliver Industry's First 45nm Single-Chip Digital TV Platform

– NXP Semiconductors and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. (TWSE: 2330, NYSE: TSM) today announced their cooperation to deliver the industry’s first single-chip 45nm global LCD TV platform, TV550. With NXP already delivering the engineering samples to its lead customers, NXP and TSMC have reached a major milestone in enabling the next generation of mainstream digital TV sets for TV manufacturers.

Featuring NXP’s PNX85500 processor, built on TSMC’s 45nm Low Power (LP) process technology, the NXP TV550 digital TV platform is a production-ready reference design that reduces time-to-market with a major step forward in functional integration for system cost down. The newly introduced DTV platform allows TV viewers to enjoy HD digital content and internet access with unparalleled picture quality. The long-term partnership and collaboration between NXP and TSMC was the key to this first-to-market achievement, with early access to silicon test results from TSMC resulting in accurate transistor characterization using state-of-the art PSP models.

NXP called on TSMC, who had announced the industry’s first 45nm process technology in 2007, to achieve its time-to-market lead. NXP selected TSMC’s 45LP process technology for its outstanding performance characteristics such as multiple Vt to achieve lower power consumption, excellent current drive capability and one of the industry’s smallest SRAM cell size of 0.299µm2.

“Digital switchover and high definition content are the major demands for the TV industry” said Lou Schreurs, business line TV general manager, NXP Semiconductors. “With TSMC’s valuable experience in advanced CMOS technologies and NXP’s TV system design expertise, we are able to deliver these high end features with a reduced bill-of-materials. Our customers are highly impressed with TV550’s superb picture quality and its capability to handle the complex global digital standards with a single platform.”

The TSMC 45 LP cost-competitive process offers designers up to twice the density of 65nm with significant low power and up to 40% smaller die size. Compared with TSMC 40G technology, the 45LP requires less photo masks and is ideal for products demanding excellent cost performance ratio.

“NXP has clearly achieved its leadership with the availability of this single-chip digital TV SoC. The device is ‘right-the-first-time fully functional silicon that delivered as flip chip packaged samples just eight weeks after tape out,” said John Wei, Senior Director, Advanced Technology Marketing for TSMC.

About NXP Semiconductors
NXP is a leading semiconductor company founded by Philips more than 50 years ago. Headquartered in Europe, the company has about 28,000 employees working in more than 30 countries and posted sales of USD 5.4 billion (including the Mobile & Personal business) in 2008. NXP creates semiconductors, system solutions and software that deliver better sensory experiences in TVs, set-top boxes, identification applications, mobile phones, cars and a wide range of other electronic devices. News from NXP is located at www.nxp.com.

About TSMC
TSMC is the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, providing the industry’s leading process technology and the foundry’s largest portfolio of process-proven libraries, IP, design tools and reference flows. The Company’s total managed capacity in 2008 exceeded 9 million 8-inch equivalent wafers, including capacity from two advanced 12-inch - GigaFabs™, four eight-inch fabs, one six-inch fab, as well as TSMC’s wholly owned subsidiaries, WaferTech and TSMC (China), and its joint venture fab, SSMC. TSMC is the first foundry to provide 40nm production capabilities. Its corporate headquarters are in Hsinchu, Taiwan. For more information about TSMC please visit http://www.tsmc.com.