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HSINCHU, Taiwan, May 24, 2004 - UMC (NYSE: UMC; TSE: 2303), a world leading semiconductor foundry, is driving the foundry industry's migration to 90nm technology, with some of the world's largest IC companies currently utilizing UMC for the fabrication of their most advanced 90nm chips. UMC first announced working 90nm customer silicon in March of 2003, and over the last year has been qualified for volume production by several major customers, including Xilinx, the world leader in programmable logic, and Texas Instruments, the largest supplier of silicon for wireless handsets. The speed of this ramp-to-volume production has surpassed the projections of most industry observers, and puts UMC clearly ahead of its competitors in the foundry industry. Products taking advantage of UMC's 90nm technology are being adopted for use in a wide range of electronic products due to the significant benefits that they offer in terms of performance, power consumption and cost.
Dr. Jackson Hu, CEO of UMC, stated, "Process technology leadership requires a huge commitment in terms of research and development resources. UMC has consistently made that commitment because it is an important part of our fundamental strategy of maximizing the competitiveness of our customer's products. Today, we are extremely happy to see our hard work paying off with the production success of customers utilizing our 90nm foundry services. We are also excited to see that fabless companies and IDMs are both taking advantage of the benefits of our foundry services. This clearly shows the important role that foundry companies have come to play in reducing the risks associated with the extremely capital-intensive semiconductor industry. It is truly a win-win situation for all involved."
UMC's 90nm process node represents the foundry industry's most advanced production technology. The 90nm process has been developed according to UMC's SOC Platform concept that allows the process to be customized to fit various applications. Multiple transistor options, such as standard performance (SP) or low leakage (LL) serve as the base of the platform. As more and more customers begin the transition to 90nm, a wide range of silicon proven, EDA tool integrated IP and embedded memory options will be made available to lower the barrier of entry for sophisticated SOC designs. UMC's strong system knowledge and design support expertise will enable customers to realize their designs in silicon in the shortest time possible.
In the coming months, UMC expects to expand 90nm production on 300mm wafers at its Fab 12A facility in Taiwan, based upon current customer requests, and bring this technology to volume production at UMCi, the 300mm foundry subsidiary located in Singapore. Furthermore, UMC is already working closely with several customers to ensure leadership for upcoming generations of process technology, including 65nm and 45nm technologies.
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