Sunnyvale, Calif., Sept. 16, 1998 - Silicon Motion, Inc.(SMI), a maker of advanced graphics chips, announces volume shipment of its LynxE high performance graphics accelerator, with impressive yields for the chip manufactured by UMC Group using the foundry's 16-Mb, 128-bit wide embedded DRAM technology. The LynxE incorporates an extensive range of multimedia features including 192-bit memory architecture, high performance 2D graphics, video playback, video capture, and single chip dual display support for Windows 98. Dual display is the latest feature for notebook computers, where a single graphics controller must drive two independent screens. This requires extremely high memory bandwidth that only Embedded DRAM can provide. LynxE also features SMI's Virtual Refresh™ architecture and adaptive power management to achieve 0.5W power consumption while providing the best bandwidth delivery in the portable application arena. "The LynxE has proven extremely popular for portable applications requiring high performance, while retaining the low power characteristics desired by the leading notebook computer manufacturers. Performance is boosted significantly by the use of embedded DRAM in our design. Despite the extreme manufacturing complexity of integrating logic and memory on a single chip, UMC Group has worked very hard with us to achieve stable high yields and to meet our rising demand as chip sales continue to increase." said Wallace Kou, SMI's President and Founder. The embedded 16-Mb, 128 bit-wide embedded DRAM cell design was provided by UMC Group, a foundry leader in advanced embedded manufacturing processes. "We are extremely fortunate to have Silicon Motion as a foundry customer. Their leading edge technology has resulted in an impressive product, and has been a great vehicle for UMC Group's embedded memory process technology. We expect yields to continue to improve as demand for this chip increases, providing the most cost-effective solution for Silicon Motion," said John Hsuan, Co-CEO of UMC Group. Silicon Motion's LynxE chip is the first embedded memory product in volume production at UMC Group. "I am happy to see that the investments we have made in embedded technologies are starting to pay off by providing our customers a competitive edge. We will continue to invest in the process technologies and design services that allow our customers to take full advantage of embedded DRAM, SRAM and Non-volatile on chip applications," said Jim Kupec, President of UMC Group USA. |
About Silicon Motion, Inc. |
Silicon Motion provides integrated multimedia silicon and software solutions which bridge the multimedia feature gap between PCs and consumer products. SMI has more than 25 investors from Taiwan, Japan, and the U.S. The company's goal is to become the leading supplier of multimedia controllers in the notebook, sub-notebook, LCD monitor, and POS markets. |