UMC and Faraday to Expand Silicon Verified IP Offerings

-- Faraday Technology Corporation (TAIEX: 3035), a leading provider of ASIC design service and silicon proven IP, and UMC (NYSE: UMC), a world leading semiconductor foundry, today announced that Faraday will expand its silicon verified IP offerings on UMC's 0.18-micron, 0.15-micron, and 0.13-micron processes. Faraday is on track to have a comprehensive suite of IP that includes high-speed interface, processor cores, and mixed-signal cores, made available to mutual customers. This agreement will provide customers with an expansive portfolio of Faraday IP cores that target a wide range of IC applications, all proven on UMC silicon. The two companies already have a long working history of jointly developing cell libraries and embedded memories.

"Faraday's expanded portfolio of high-quality, high-performance IP cores will be a welcome addition to UMC’s Gold IP portfolio," said Ken Liou, director of the Design Support division at UMC. "Designers of sophisticated SoC systems seeking to shorten their time-to-market and reduce design risk will find silicon-proven IP cores jointly provided by Faraday and UMC ideal solutions for their design needs. Customers utilizing these cores will gain the benefits of low power consumption, high performance and mass-production reliability."

"UMC continues to be an outstanding foundry partner for Faraday, and we are pleased to be working with UMC on high-value IP porting," said Wilson Tzeng, Vice President of Faraday Technology. "These IP cores in UMC's leading-edge processes enable a broad range of consumer, computer and communication applications emphasizing performance and cost efficiency."

Faraday’s IP cores will include:

• High-Speed I/Os: USB 1.1/2.0 PHY, USB OTG PHY, Giga-bit Ethernet PHY, LVDS Receiver/Transmitter, 1.5G/3G Serial-ATA, PCI Express, Serdes, etc.
• Processor IP Cores: 16-bit/24-bit DSP, 32-bit RISC CPU
• Fundamental Mixed-Signal IP Cores: PLL, DLL, POR, Regulator, Oscillator, PECL, Multi-Voltage I/O, ADC, DAC, Audio CODEC, Audio DAC, etc.

Faraday’s offerings are available today to customers through UMC’s Gold IP program and IP Master online service. As Faraday’s newer cores are brought to market, they will also be made available to UMC customers through these programs.

About Faraday Technology Corporation
Faraday Technology Corporation provides leading ASIC/SoC design services and production-proven IPs to customers ranging from system houses and IDMs to IC design houses. The company's broad portfolio of key IPs includes leading products such as RISC CPUs, 16/24-bit DSPs, USB 2.0, gigabit Ethernet, and Serial-ATA. With more than 480 employees and 2002 revenue of 96.2 million USD, Faraday is the largest fabless ASIC design service company in all Asia-Pacific. Headquartered in Hsinchu Taiwan, Faraday offers service and support branch offices around the world, including the U.S., Japan, Europe, and China. For more information on Faraday, please visit http://www.faraday.com.tw

About UMC
UMC (NYSE: UMC, TSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry that manufactures advanced process ICs for applications spanning every major sector of the semiconductor industry. UMC delivers cutting-edge foundry technologies that enable sophisticated system-on-chip (SOC) designs, including 90nm copper, 0.13um copper, embedded DRAM, and mixed signal/RFCMOS. UMC is also a leader in 300mm manufacturing; Fab 12A in Taiwan is currently in volume production for a variety of customer products, while the Singapore-based UMCi will begin pilot production later this year. UMC employs over 8,500 people worldwide and has offices in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Europe, and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com.

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