ARC International Signs Licensing Agreement with a Leading Smartcard Technology Provider

ELSTREE, England, July 6, 2005 – ARC International (LSE: ARK), the world leader in configurable CPU/DSP processor cores and application subsystems, today announced that it has reached a license agreement with a leading high technology company and new licensee to ARC International. Valued at £900,000 pounds, the deal gives the undisclosed customer wide-ranging access to ARC’s patented configurable technology.

Derek Meyer, vice president of marketing for ARC International, commented, “In applications where data protection is of the utmost importance, our configurable technology offers licensees the ability to create highly differentiated solutions. This new agreement underscores the growing adoption of ARC’s solutions for high-growth markets, and we are pleased that another industry leader has joined the list of more than one hundred ARC licensees.”

About ARC’s Patented Configurable SoC Technology
ARC’s configurable technology enables SoC designers to create highly differentiated silicon that is optimized to the end application. ARC-Based™ SoCs have an optimal balance of speed, area and power, and generally are smaller, lower power and therefore less expensive than SoCs developed using fixed architecture CPUs.

Using ARC’s configurable technology SoC designers can define custom extensions to accelerate critical code, resulting in greater application efficiency and a proprietary solution that is wholly owned by its inventor. ARC cores also offer powerful DSP instruction extensions through the ARC XY Advanced DSP subsystem, which can eliminate the need for external logic and DSP blocks on an SoC.

About ARC International plc
ARC International is the world leader in low-power, high-performance 32-bit configurable CPU/DSP processor cores, subsystems, real-time operating systems and development tools for embedded system design. ARC’s configurable and extendible cores assist customers in the development of next generation digital media, consumer and communications devices, resulting in lower cost, higher performance SoC products.

ARC International maintains a worldwide presence with corporate offices in San Jose, California, USA and Elstree, UK. The company has research and development offices located in England and the United States. For more information please visit the ARC website at: www.ARC.com. ARC International is listed on the London Stock Exchange as ARC International plc (LSE: ARK).

ARC, ARC-Based and the ARC logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of ARC International. All other brands or product names contained herein are the property of their respective owners. This press release may contain certain "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For factors that could cause actual results to differ, visit the company’s Website as well as the listing particulars filed with the United Kingdom Listing Authority and the Registrar of Companies in England and Wales.