BenQ Chooses Renesas' SH-Mobile Application Processor in its Latest 2.5G Multimedia GSM Phones

-- Renesas Technology Corp. and BenQ Corporation (TSEC: 2352) today announced that Renesas Technologys industry-leading SH-Mobile application processor will be incorporated into BenQs latest models of 2.5G multimedia GSM mobile phones. With the first launch of Z2 in April, followed by another model in June, both models will be available in Mainland China, Taiwan, Europe and other Asian areas.

Dr. Chinglung Chen, Director of Taipei Product R&D Center, Network & Communications Business Group at BenQ Corp, suggested The SH-Mobile application processor supports high-quality multimedia performance in both audio and video applications. It is capable of developing more advanced audio solutions, such as AAC/ AAC+, which fit perfectly with the demand of BenQ Z2 model and the current market trend. Also, with the complete software and hardware local support, SH-Mobile is able to provide maximum flexibility and a wide range of customization functions to their customers in order to meet the requirements of the highly competitive mobile phone market.

Mr. Dai Hirasawa, Chairman & CEO of Renesas Technology Taiwan Co., Ltd. said: We are pleased to provide our SH-Mobile solution to BenQ, one of the worlds leading mobile phone manufacturers. With this successful collaboration and promising business relationship in the future, I believe we will bring mobile phones powered by SH-Mobile to market faster and further increase our share in the mobile phone market.

In the years ahead, Renesas Technology will continue to work through the SH-Mobile Consortium to advance the widespread adoption of SH-Mobile in the next generation mobile phone market, with its strong demand for a wide variety of applications.  Renesas Technology has been committed to providing optimal solutions to manufactures in this field. BenQ will continue to develop products that match the trend in mobile phones for increasingly advanced and higher-level multimedia applications. The company aims to introduce products optimized to the requirements of the market in a timely manner.

About SH-Mobile
Renesas Technologys SH-Mobile is a flexible application accelerator that provides multimedia support for next-generation cellular phone communications. Unlike a traditional baseband CPU method that uses a single CPU to manage both signal and application processing, the SH-Mobile design approach uses a dual CPU architecture that dedicates one CPU to application execution in order to maximize communication performance. Built on Renesas popular SuperH 32-bit RISC superscalar architecture, SH-Mobile devices offers compelling functionality such as the JPEG, MP3, acoustic echo canceller, AMR codec, MPEG4 encode/decode and Java Virtual Machine capabilities that are essential for supporting the high-end multimedia applications of next generation mobile phones. For more information about SH-Mobile, please visit:
http://www.renesas.com/eng/products/mpumcu/shmobile/index.html


About SH-Mobile Consortium
A program for member companies formed in October 2003 to pursue and promote system solutions for mobile phones. URL: http://shm-consortium.renesas.com/eng/index.html

About BenQ Z2
BenQ Z2 provides multimedia functions, including an embedded 1.3M pixel camera, with 10 special effects.

BenQ Z2 specifications

• Tri-Band GSM 900/1800/1900
• 3D Surrounding sound
• 128 x 128,1.5 262 K color TFT display
• 1.3M pixel integrated camera
• Extra-large 58MB dynamic user memory and Mini SD Card expansion
• Full-function MP3 Player with voice recorder and lyrics display

Renesas Technology Corp. designs and manufactures highly integrated semiconductor system solutions for mobile, automotive and PC/AV markets. Established on April 1, 2003 as a joint venture between Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501, NYSE:HIT) and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TSE:6503) and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Renesas Technology is one of the largest semiconductor companies in the world and world leading microcontroller supplier globally. Besides microcontrollers, Renesas Technology offers system-on-chip devices, Smart Card ICs, mixed-signal products, flash memories, SRAMs and more. http://www.renesas.com

About BenQ
BenQ is an industry leader in networked digital lifestyle devices with an expertise that encompasses display, storage, imaging, wireless and broadband areas.
BenQ has manufacturing plants in Malaysia, Mexico, China and Taiwan. The company has over 13,895 employees worldwide, supporting a strong global sales marketing and service network spanning Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Americas. BenQ has research and development facilities in Taiwan (Hsinchu Lab), China (Suzhou Software Development Center) and California, USA (Wireless Technology Center), and has more than 2000 research and development employees in Suzhou, Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu and San Diego. BenQ has amassed 2,162 global patents. 2004 revenues exceeded US$5 billion dollars. For more information about BenQ, please visit our website at BenQ.com.


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***Information contained in this news release is current as of the date of the press announcement, but maybe subject to change without prior notice. ***