Faraday and MorethanIP Enter Partnership for 10GbE/XAUI & IEEE 1588 Ethernet IP Cores for ASICs and Structured ASIC Engagements

-- Faraday Technology Corporation (TAIEX: 3035), a leading ASIC, Structured ASIC and IP provider, and MorethanIP GmbH, an industry leader for Ethernet IP solutions, today announced that they have entered a partnership agreement to engage on 10GbE XAUI and IEEE 1588 Networking ASIC and Structured ASIC applications.

The 10GbE market has picked up more momentum during the past year as the cost of optical modules that had in part hampered the fast deployments of the technology have steadily declined, while in conjunction, advancements in the emerging 10GbE copper PHY technologies enable a compelling cost competitive option for 10GbE enterprise deployments. In addition to cost, a number of emerging applications such as IPTV, Video on Demand (VoD) and enterprise video streaming are demanding more network bandwidth. As a result 10GbE is fast emerging as the interface and backplane technology of choice for both next generation blade server and ATCA/Micro-TCA equipment, along side PCI Express. Gartner Dataquest forecasts 6 million 10GbE switch ports per year by 2010.

Moreover, using IEEE 1588, it is now possible for the first time to synchronize, in the sub-microsecond range, the local clocks in sensors, actuators, and other terminal devices using a common Ethernet network. As such, the test and measurement, instrumentation and industrial automation industries have all shown keen interest in the standard and plan to integrate the technology into their next generation systems.

“ Through the partnership with MorethanIP, Faraday is now uniquely positioned to address the full spectrum of Ethernet standards using a common, flexible, and end-to-end architecture comprising of a programmable SerDes, PCS and MAC combination for easy integration of 10G bE/XAUI and IEEE 1588 technologies into our ASICs and Platform ASIC products,” said Christopher Moezzi , VP of marketing & business development for Faraday's international business unit.

“Through working with Faraday on their next generation communication structured ASICs we were able to architect a library of new cores including 10GbE PCS and IEEE 1588 around the unique attributes of the company's flexible platform structured ASIC family,” said Francois Balay, CEO of MorethanIP. “These cores are all UNH certified and optimized to leverage Faraday's programmable SerDes and support 1GbE, 2.5Gbps, 3.125Gbps rates, including the emerging IEEE 1588 standard.

About MorethanIP

MorethanIP was founded in 2000 as a GmbH (ltd.) in Munich Germany by three senior Telecommunication Engineers. MorethanIP is a privately owned and profitable design and IP (Intellectual Property) house concentrating on high-speed communications, serial backplane and embedded system technologies. This includes design, specification and implementation of standard products, system architectures and customer-specific solutions. Combining its methodology with proven technical expertise from more than ten years of industry experience in Hardware and Software design, MorethanIP generates rapid design cycles to meet time-to-market, functional and budgetary objectives.

About Faraday Technology Corporation

Faraday Technology Corporation is a leading silicon IP and fabless ASIC vendor. The company's broad SIP portfolio includes 32-bit RISC CPUs, DSPs, MPEG4, H.264, PHYs/Controllers for USB 2.0, 10/100 Ethernet, Serial ATA, PCI Express, Cell Library and Memory Compiler. With more than 650 employees and 2005 revenue of US$175 million, Faraday is one of the largest fabless ASIC companies in the Asia-Pacific region, and it also has a significant presence in other world-wide markets. Headquartered in Taiwan , Faraday has service and support offices around the world, including the U.S. , Japan , Europe, and China . For more information, please visit :www.faraday-tech.com