Chartered Invests in Design Services Firm to Enhance Design Readiness of Value-Added Solutions

-- Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, one of the world's top dedicated foundries, today announced it is making a strategic investment in Gateway Silicon Inc. (GSI), a Taiwan-based firm specializing in ASIC/System-on-Chip (SoC) design services and intellectual property (IP) development and integration. GSI is a spin-off of Taiwanese integrated device manufacturer (IDM) Macronix International Co., Ltd. Macronix will continue to hold the majority stake in GSI. Terms of the investment were not announced.

The two companies will collaborate on developing and optimizing design services while extending GSI's expertise to leverage Chartered's portfolio of value-added solutions (VAS). The VAS offering consists of plug-in modules based on Chartered's proven CMOS process technologies, on its cost-effective wafer fab production capacity. They provide customers with efficient and reliable solutions for quickly developing differentiated products in markets such as wireless, consumer and security/industrial.

"GSI has a strong regional presence and a proven expertise in key application areas that will make them a valuable part of our ability to provide customers with a total solution for leveraging our value-added solution offerings. As a large target market for this part of our manufacturing capabilities is based in the Asia Pacific region, their location is ideal as well," said Bo Cheng, president of the Asia Region for Chartered. "Investing in GSI is consistent with our philosophy of openness and flexibility for the design enablement ecosystem our customers are requiring. It allows us to work closely together to optimize GSI's resources to support our solutions, and provide customers with a faster path to silicon."

The Chartered VAS offering provides product developers with a proven set of solutions for specific market segments. Its focus includes microcontrollers, non-volatile memory, high-voltage devices for applications such as display drivers and digital TV tuners, RFID tags and smart cards, and low-power products for applications requiring extensive power management capabilities.

"We are pleased to become an important part of the Chartered ecosystem of support, and expand Chartered's presence throughout our region," said Jieh-Ping "JP" Peng, president of GSI. "We are confident our skills will be useful in helping product designers leverage the benefits of Chartered's VAS offering, and this agreement will create long-term value for Chartered and its customer base."

About Chartered

Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, one of the world's top dedicated semiconductor foundries, offers leading-edge technologies down to 65 nanometer (nm), enabling today's system-on-chip designs. The company further serves the needs of customers through its collaborative, joint development approach on a technology roadmap that extends to 45nm. Chartered's strategy is based on open and comprehensive design enablement solutions, manufacturing enhancement methodologies, and a commitment to flexible sourcing. In Singapore, the company operates a 300mm fabrication facility and four 200mm facilities. Information about Chartered can be found at http://www.charteredsemi.com.

About GSI

GSI (Gateway Silicon Inc.), a professional IC design service company founded in August 2006 at Hsin-chu Science Park, Taiwan. GSI focuses on research and development in analog/digital IP for consumer ICs, provides service in SOC implementation and IC turnkey realization. Through GSI's proprietary platform solutions, competitive wafer package and integrated turnkey service, customer is able to benefit the time to market and good quality IC products from conceptual design, system verification to mass production.

About Macronix International Co., Ltd.

Macronix International Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ:MXICY - News; TSEC:2337) is an independent designer, producer and supplier of non-volatile memory products such as Mask ROM, EPROM, Flash, and logic and other application-specific integrated circuit products including system-on-a-chip (also named as SOC) and solutions. Macronix views itself as an integrated solutions provider, treating its customers as strategic partners and working closely with them in all aspects of product development to provide silicon chip solutions that satisfy their specific needs. Headquartered in Hsin-Chu, Taiwan, Macronix currently employs approximately 3,560 people worldwide. Macronix was named by Business Week in June 2001 as one of the top 100 Information Technology companies worldwide. In addition, Macronix's Chairman, Miin Wu, was named by Business Week in July 2001 as one of 13 entrepreneurs among 50 "stars" of Asia. For more information, please visit the Company's website at www.macronix.com.