MIPS Technologies and ITE Technology, Inc. Announce Agreement to License MIPS32 4KE Pro Core Family

- MIPS Technologies, Inc., (NASDAQ: MIPS), a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital consumer and business applications, today announced that ITE Technology, Inc., one of Taiwan's leading IC design houses, has licensed the MIPS32® 4KEm™ Pro and 4KEp™ Pro cores, to develop next-generation SoCs for portable digital multimedia, including MP3, Portable Media Players (PMP), and other audio/video applications. This agreement further extends MIPS Technologies’ reach into a rapidly expanding PMP market, which includes the MIPS-BasedTM Sony PSP™ (PlayStation® Portable).  

The MIPS32 4KE family of cores offers an ideal solution for the development of high-performance, low power-consumption and highly-integrated chipsets for customer-end applications. The 4KE Pro cores feature the CorExtend™ capability, enabling designers to add user-defined instructions.

In the PC-related field, ITE has been well recognized as a leading global supplier of a complete range of I/O chips. In recent years, the company has expanded into new markets and developed new product lines. “After careful evaluation, we decided to adopt the MIPS architecture because of the high-performance, low-power and small footprint delivered by the 4KEm and 4KEp Pro cores,” said Vincent Hu, Chairman of ITE. “With their large writeback cache memories and user-defined instructions, the 4KEm and 4KEp Pro cores will enable IC designers to optimize the performance and battery life of portable digital devices.”

“Consumers worldwide have clearly demonstrated their enthusiasm for digital audio and video entertainment,” said Amos Lu, Region Manager of Greater China for MIPS Technologies.  “We are excited at the prospect of working with ITE to solidify our leadership role in the design of market-leading portable digital multimedia devices. The 4KEm and 4KEp Pro cores will enable ITE to reduce development costs and accelerate time-to-market. The combination of the MIPS architecture's superior performance and ITE’s sophisticated technology results in highly differentiated products that meet customers' demands for performance, power and cost."

About the MIPS32 4KE Pro cores

The 4KE Pro family offers a powerful 1.53 DMIPS/MHz performance in a synthesizable, 32-bit processor.  The 4KE Pro family adds the CorExtend capability to its highly flexible feature set that enables designers to increase performance while reducing die size and power consumption and, ultimately, total system cost.  For example, the MIPS16eTM architecture reduces code-space requirements by as much as 40 percent, and extensive clock gating reduces power consumption without reducing performance.  The 4KE Pro cores are synthesizable, enabling easy integration into SoC designs.  

About MIPS Technologies

MIPS Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital consumer and business applications. The company drives the broadest architectural alliance that is delivering 32- and 64-bit embedded RISC solutions. The company licenses its intellectual property to semiconductor companies, ASIC developers and system OEMs. MIPS Technologies and its licensees offer the widest range of robust, scalable processors in standard, custom, semi-custom and application-specific products. The company is based in Mountain View, Calif., and can be reached at +1 (650) 567-5000 or www.mips.com .

About ITE Technology, Inc.

ITE is a professional fabless IC design house headquartered in Science Industrial Park, Hsinchu, with a sales office in Taipei.  ITE is recognized as a leading global supplier of I/O chips and conducts business with leading PC manufacturers worldwide.  ITE develops a variety of Intellectual Properties of all types for advanced ICs, and has developed diverse expertise in the areas of system S/W, H/W, and highly integrated technology; moreover, ITE works with leading corporations worldwide in strategic partnerships to expedite the development of new products.  For more information, please visit www.ite.com.tw.

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MIPS, MIPS16e, MIPS32, 4KE, 4KEp, 4KEm and CorExtend are trademarks or registered trademarks in the United States and other countries of MIPS Technologies, Inc. PlayStation is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. PSP is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.  All other trademarks referred to herein are the property of their respective owners.