UMC Selected by TrendChip for Manufacturing of Taiwan’s First Turnkey ADSL Residential Solution

Dual-Chip solution features integrated network processor and DMT DSP

Hsinchu, Taiwan, July 16, 2003 –TrendChip Technologies Corporation and UMC, a world leading semiconductor foundry (NYSE: UMC), today announced that TrendChip’s WireExpress ADSL chipset, the first product in its xDSL family, is being manufactured in volume on UMC’s 0.18 micron CMOS process technology. UMC is producing the digital portion of the SoC (system on chip) solution, which features a network processor and a Discrete Multi-Tone (DMT) digital signal processor (DSP). The dual-chip solution, composed of TrendChip’s TC3160 ADSL processor and Silicon Laboratories’ Si3101 highly-integrated analog front end (AFE), is designed to address the cost and performance requirements of the ADSL customer premise equipment (CPE) market.

“Our new WireExpress is a breakthrough in the Taiwanese market, particularly as the TC3160 supports ADSL, Ethernet, PCMCIA (for WLAN integration), and USB,” noted Shin-Jou Fang, president of TrendChip. “We needed a leading semiconductor foundry partner to help us ensure silicon success. As UMC has a proven track-record in manufacturing sophisticated products as well as offerings that target the communications market, it made an excellent choice for helping us with our product. The result is excellent foundry support and meeting our volume production requirements within our target market window.”

Jackson Hu, CEO at UMC, commented, “Developing dual chip technology like TrendChip’s WireExpress requires design knowledge, cooperation between all development partners and manufacturing expertise. As such, we are delighted that our close collaboration with TrendChip has resulted in this SoC offering, and that we were able to provide the support and manufacturing solutions that they were seeking in order to deliver their product.”

TrendChip’s ADSL IC is Taiwan’s first entry into the rapidly growing ADSL IC market. As part of this solution, TrendChip is also providing a WireExpress reference modem, which is a complete Residential Gateway turnkey solution with all of the hardware and software needed for bridge, router, or WLAN access point capabilities.

About TrendChip Technologies Corporation
TrendChip Technologies Corporation, founded in 2001, is a fast growing startup in the xDSL IC design business. TrendChip is headquartered at Suite 112, Bldg. 53, No.195, Sec.4, Chung Hsing Rd. Chutung. Hsinchu, Taiwan 310, R.O.C., +886-3-591-0108, http://www.trendchip.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 joint venture with Infineon Technologies 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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