NEC Electronics Acquires License of FlexRay IP from Bosch

NEC Electronics Corporation and its subsidiaries in Europe and the United States, NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH and NEC Electronics America, Inc., today announced the acquisition of a non-exclusive license of the FlexRay® Communication Controller IP from Robert Bosch GmbH.  Bosch, a FlexRay Consortium core member and a leading automotive networking IP specialist, will develop the FlexRay IP core according to the latest FlexRay specification.  NEC Electronics will use this IP to develop FlexRay silicon based on its automotive-proven CMOS technology.  Through this cooperation, Bosch and NEC Electronics deepen their partnership on automotive networking which has already proven successful for the protocols of CAN and TTCAN.

FlexRay is a next-generation high-speed serial communication system for in-vehicle network, which offers high bandwidth (¡Ý10 Mbits/s) and flexible configuration options.  By complementing the existing in-vehicle networking standards CAN, LIN and MOST, it will enable carmakers and system suppliers to develop entirely new and innovative system concepts for future vehicles.

¡°NEC Electronics is fully committed long-term to the global automotive market,¡± says Minoru Matsuda, General Manager of 3rd System LSI Division of the 2nd Business Development Operations Unit in NEC Electronics Corporation.  ¡°Through this technical partnership with Bosch, NEC Electronics will continue to deliver new solutions to our automotive customers that meet and exceed their future performance and networking requirements.¡±

First silicon for development and prototyping is scheduled to be available in the first quarter of 2005.  This product will be the first device in an NEC Electronics FlexRay roadmap, followed by a qualified second product with sample availability scheduled for fourth quarter 2005.  With this product line, NEC Electronics is meeting a strong market demand.

NEC Electronics¡¯ aim is to become a major supplier of FlexRay products. With these devices, NEC Electronics complements its roadmap of automotive products, supporting the innovative communications network requirements for future automotive applications in terms of communication bandwidth and deterministic fault-tolerant data transmission.  Typical FlexRay target applications are powertrain applications and chassis control including x-by-wire systems.

NEC Electronics (TSE: 6723) worldwide specializes in semiconductor products encompassing advanced technology solutions for the high-end computing and broadband networking markets, system solutions for the mobile handsets, PC peripherals, automotive and digital consumer markets, and platform solutions for a wide range of customer applications. NEC Electronics Corporation has 24 subsidiaries worldwide including NEC Electronics America, Inc. (www.necelam.com) and NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH (www.ee.nec.de). In addition to marketing, selling and supporting NEC Electronics products to customers in their respective regions, NEC Electronics America and NEC Electronics Europe also operate local manufacturing facilities in Roseville, California, and Ballivor, Ireland, respectively. Additionally, NEC Electronics America for North America and NEC Electronics Europe for Europe are the sales and marketing channels of NEC AM-LCD and PDP modules. For additional information about NEC Electronics worldwide, visit www.necel.com.

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