SMSC Licenses the ARC 600 Family of Configurable Processors from ARC International

ELSTREE, England, April 3, 2006 – ARC International (LSE: ARK), the world leader in configurable CPU/DSP cores and application subsystems, today announced that SMSC has taken a license for the ARC™ 600 family of configurable processors for computing applications.

Ray Newstead, vice president of business development at SMSC, said, “During the evaluation process, it was clear that ARC’s configurable technology enables the development of low cost, highly optimized solutions to meet our customers’ needs. The configurable ARC 600 core family adds a roadmap of 32-bit microprocessors to our solutions building blocks.”

“SMSC is the latest example of a leading semiconductor provider to license our configurable cores for a high-volume application,” said Derek Meyer, senior vice president of sales and marketing at ARC. “Our products enable the creation of smaller, lower power chips with smaller code-size requirements, which provide more functions per transistor than what is possible using a fixed architecture. The ARC 605 core is an optimal replacement for legacy 8-bit microcontrollers, while the ARC 610D and 625D cores are cost effective 32-bit CPUs/DSPs ideal for a wide range of general purpose embedded applications.”

About ARC’s Patented Configurable CPU Technology
ARC’s configurable processors and subsystems enable system-on-chip (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. ARC processors also offer powerful DSP instruction extensions through the ARC XY Advanced DSP subsystem, which can eliminate the need for external logic and DSP blocks on an SoC.

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).