Hsinchu, Taiwan, May 13, 2002 - UMC (NYSE: UMC), a world leading semiconductor foundry announced today the development of a highly specialized ASIC for Ricoh Company Ltd. The IC, built for imaging processing equipment, is based on UMC's 130nm copper/low-k technology with mass production for the chip expectedin August. Ricoh's successful migration to UMC's 130nm process generation signifies Ricoh's status as Japan's leading provider of products that utilize the industry's most advanced technology. UMC has been producing 180nm products for Ricoh since May 2001.

Dr. Terumoto Nonaka, president of Ricoh Electronic Device Company commented, "Although Ricoh operates its own manufacturing facilities, our latest generation of advanced products requires the industry's most cutting-edge process technologies. UMC is the perfect choice for Ricoh's advanced products as it continues to prove its ability to deliver leading technologies such as its 130nm process capability."

UMC provided supporting design services including 130nm libraries, IP resources, and integrated design rules to facilitate smoother design-in, while Ricoh shared its product data and worked together with UMC engineers to achieve first silicon success.

Dr. Fu Tai Liou, chief officer of worldwide sales and marketing from UMC said, "We are committed to providing our world-leading foundry services, as well as our 130nm process, to help Ricoh, a world-leading provider of office equipment, achieve its market goals. We have also agreed to expand our manufacturing partnership to assure Ricoh ongoing access to UMC's capacity in order to meet the growing demand for its products."

Dr. Terumoto Nonaka added, "We have been working with UMC for quite some time for our 180nm based products and are pleased to be able to make the successful migration to 130nm. We also expect to extend our existing and future product manufacturing to UMC's other worldwide production facilities, creating a win-win situation for both our companies through a more diversified manufacturing base."

Ricoh Company, Ltd. is a leading global manufacturer of office automation equipment, including copiers, printers, facsimile, CD-R/RW drives and media, digital cameras, and related software, supplies and services. Its Electronic Devices Company aims to be a LSI company with system expertise that provides value added LSIs to customers. Ricoh has high market share in Card Controller, CD-R/RW LSIs, and JPEG LSIs based on its system expertise and also in Power Management ICs, Battery Management ICs, Real Time Clock, and Analog LSIs for cellular phone based on its low power CMOS analog technology. Ricoh has 404 consolidated subsidiaries and affiliates in Japan and overseas, together employing around 74,200people. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2002, net sales were 1,672-billion-yen and net income was 61.6billion-yen. For more information, visit the company's Webster, www.ricoh.co.jp.