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Hsinchu, Taiwan, June 24, 2002 - UMC (NYSE: UMC, TSE: 2303), a world-leading semiconductor foundry, and SandCraft, Inc. a leader in the design of high-performance MIPS processors, today announced that SandCraft's newly introduced SR71040A CPU chip is being manufactured on UMC's 0.15um logic copper process. The 600MHz superscalar embedded microprocessor represents today's highest value in terms of performance per dollar available in the MIPS64 architecture. The SR71040A complements SandCraft's flagship SR71010A, the industry's highest performance production released MIPS64 CPU, also fabricated using UMC's 0.15um copper process. Both utilize the same CPU pipeline, with the SR71040A having smaller caches in a lower pin-count package.
"We are delighted that SandCraft continues to select UMC for the production of its high-performance MIPS processors, and we are looking forward to working with the company on new developments. In particular, we are eager to collaborate with SandCraft on its upcoming, next generation 0.13 micron 800MHz processors," said Fu Tai Liou, chief officer of worldwide marketing and sales for UMC.
SandCraft's SR71040A utilizes various UMC design resources including high-performance bitcells for integrated on-chip memory, which includes 16 KB of both primary instruction and primary data cache and 128 KB of unified secondary cache, which in turn optimizes system performance while reducing system cost. The SR71040A targets value-oriented applications, including enterprise LANs, Storage Area Network systems, security-processing systems, remote aggregation systems such as DSLAMs and wireless head ends, and office automation products such as laser printers and multifunction peripherals.
"We are very pleased to have a strong strategic alliance with UMC. UMC offers leading-edge process technologies as well as an excellent support team allowing SandCraft to push both the performance end of the application spectrum with the SR71010A and value end of the application spectrum with the SR71040A," said Paul Vroomen, president and CEO of SandCraft. "We look forward to building on this partnership as we move to 0.13um and 90-nanometer process." SandCraft and UMC have been strategic partners since 2000, with UMC producing SandCraft's SR71010A, the highest performance production released MIPS 64 CPU on the market and the SR71040A the highest performance per dollar CPU. In addition, the two companies are now working together to develop the next generation of Sandcraft's ICs based on UMC's 0.13um process that features eight copper layers with true low-k dielectric.
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