SMIC and Accent agree strategic Co-operation

Milan, Italy & Shanghai, China - April 18, 2003-- Accent S.r.l. and Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Shanghai) Corporation (SMIC) announced today that the two companies will offer their combined IC manufacturing and design expertise to jointly provide a full range of IC services in Europe.

This co-operation between China’s most advanced pure-play commercial IC foundry and one of Europe’s top IC design solution providers is designed at enabling electronic product makers to shorten their time to market with end-to-end solutions that include IC design, mask manufacturing, wafer fabrication and testing.

Accent’s design solutions can be used in a wide variety of telecommunications, multimedia, industrial and automotive applications. The company is a qualified member of the ARM Technology Access program (ATAP) and the Open Core Protocol (OCP) initiative. On top of that, Accent has a strong network of partnerships with market leaders such as MIPS, ARC, Cadence, Design And Reuse, SABER, STMicroelectronics and Xilinx.

“More than enjoying the convenience of a one -stop service, customers can tap on Accent’s wide portfolio of digital and mixed signal design intellectual property that has been fully tested and validated,” said Mr Marco Mora, Vice President of Operation 1, SMIC. “This is key to shortening the design cycle and enhancing their competitive advantage.”

"We are proud to cooperate with a leading silicon foundry in China such as SMIC. Together, we wish to offer European fabless electronic customers a secure and comprehensive solution from product conception to realization, starting from prototypes and medium volumes up to large volumes," said Mr Massimo Vanzi, General Manager of Accent. “SMIC’s complete foundry facilities and services, which include 0.13um copper backend capabilities, aim at giving our customers the necessary tools to focus on advancing their technology and product offerings without having to worry about manufacturing concerns and investments.”

Jointly released by Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Shanghai) Corporation and Accent S.r.l.

About Accent Design Technology Services
Incorporated in 1993, Accent is a company majority-owned by STMicroelectronics. With more than 120 experienced designers, Accent is a leading provider of electronic design services and platform-level intellectual property (IP) in the field of telecommunication, multimedia applications and low-power general computing. Accent's offerings include System-on-Chip Design, Field Programmable Gate Arrays Design (FPGA), Silicon Implementation, Analog and Mixed Signal Design, Software and Firmware Design, Supply Chain Management and Support for Prototypes IC Supply, and Intellectual Property-related Services. For more information, please visit www.accent.it

About SMIC
SMIC is the first pure-play advanced IC foundry in China to achieve volume production for 8-inch wafers at 0.25um, 0.18um and finer line technologies. Established in April 2000, SMIC is a Cayman Islands company based in Shanghai. The foundry provides customers with a full range of services that include: design services, mask manufacturing, wafer fabrication as well as testing capabilities. For more information, please visit www.smics.com.