Taifatech Adopts Configurable ARC Processor To Create Next-Generation Consumer Chipsets

HSINCHU, Taiwan, April 26, 2006 – ARC International (LSE: ARK) today announced that Taifatech, a fabless semiconductor company specializing in controllers for management and connectivity through LAN or WLAN, has taken a license for a configurable ARC™ 700 core to develop ARC-Based™ system on chips (SoCs) for next-generation consumer devices. Taifatech’s pioneering design will leverage a member from ARC’s patented configurable 700 CPU family to eliminate inflexible hardwired logic and consume less power than is possible using fixed architecture processors. The announcement is one of a series of new licensing agreements made public today by ARC from its Hsinchu, Taiwan office. Visit www.ARC.com for more details.

“We wanted a configurable processor architecture that would consume the minimum amount of power while being able to simultaneously deliver high compute performance,” said Oliver Szu, CEO of Taifatech. “ARC’s 700 processors achieve this goal while offering our design teams the ability to add user defined instructions to be executed in processor pipeline. This minimizes job execution overhead and data movement for efficiency and power saving. All these user defined instructions are nicely supported by tool chain for application development.”

Derek Meyer, senior vice president of sales and marketing at ARC, noted, “Taifatech joins the growing list of companies that have adopted ARC’s patented configurable CPU cores for high-growth applications. Detailed at ConfigCon Taiwan at the end of February, ARC’s configurable cores have generated tremendous interest from the semiconductor industry worldwide. We are pleased with the strong demand and look forward to working with industry leaders, such as Taifatech, and assisting their SoC development with our solutions.”

About ARC’s Patented Configurable CPU Technology

ARC’s configurable processors and subsystems enable SoC designers to create highly differentiated silicon that is optimized to the end application. Because customers can eliminate non-essential hardware, ARC-Based SoCs are generally smaller and therefore less expensive to manufacture than those developed using fixed architecture CPUs. Using ARC’s configurable technology, SoC designers can define custom extensions to accelerate critical code, resulting in greater application efficiency and a proprietary solution that is owned by its inventor.

About Taifatech, Inc.

Taifatech is a fabless semiconductor company specializing in controllers that provide management and connectivity through LAN or WLAN. With its Web Server Controller, Taifatech has pioneered and is the leader in the Smart Switch controller market. To address the growing Digital Home market, Taifatech has also developed solutions that provide wireless connectivity for Digital TV broadcasts and digital video delivery systems. More information is available at www.taifatech.com.tw.

About ARC International plc

ARC International is the world leader in low-power, high-performance 32-bit configurable CPU/DSP processor cores, subsystems, real-time operating systems and development tools for embedded system design. ARC’s patented configurable CPU technology assists customers in the development of next generation digital media, consumer and communications devices, resulting in lower cost, higher performance SoC products.
ARC International maintains a worldwide presence with corporate offices in San Jose, California, USA and Elstree, UK. The company has research and development offices located in England and the United States. For more information please visit the ARC website at: www.ARC.com. ARC International is listed on the London Stock Exchange as ARC International plc (LSE: ARK).