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PARTHUS AND UMC ANNOUNCE
FOUNDRY PROGRAM FOR ADVANCED BLUETOOTH RADIO SOLUTIONS THAT
POWER NEXT GENERATION MOBILE INTERNET DEVICES
Agreement allows
Parthus' customers to license Bluetooth Intellectual Property
solutions on UMC's industry-leading 0.18 CMOS process
San Jose, Calif. and Dublin, Ireland – December 13,
2000 —
Parthus Technologies PLC (Nasdaq: PRTH; LSE: PRH), a leading
developer of semiconductor intellectual property for the mobile
Internet market, and UMC (NYSE: UMC), a world leading semiconductor
foundry, today announced an agreement that enables Parthus'
customers to license its Bluetooth radio on UMC's CMOS process
to power next generation mobile Internet devices.
Parthus has developed its innovative Bluetooth radio transceiver
on UMC's 0.18 micron CMOS process. This allows Parthus and
UMC's customers to have more ready access to the tools required
for the development of mobile Internet chips. Combined with
Parthus' baseband IP integrated on a system chip, this also
enables the industry's first range of second-generation single
chip Bluetooth solutions.
The partnership allows a range of customers, including integrated
circuit (IC) companies and OEM manufactures, to license Bluetooth
technology "off the shelf" from Parthus. By having this proven
technology readily available from Parthus on UMC's CMOS process,
OEM manufacturers and IC companies can realize significantly
reduced time to market cycles and cost-efficiencies.
"
The essence
of Bluetooth is wireless connectivity across a range of electronic
devices in a low-cost, high-performance package," said Kevin
Fielding, chief operating officer of Parthus. "By making our
technology available on UMC's CMOS process, we can accelerate
the timetable for the mass deployment of Bluetooth technology.
CMOS is the workhorse of the microprocessor industry because
it delivers a low power, low cost solution. Furthermore, as
a UMC ASICplus™ member, customers can leverage the benefits
of the program with this latest offering to develop a total
Bluetooth solution."
"The Bluetooth
market is seeing tremendous growth as consumers embrace the
many benefits this technology has to offer,ˇ¨ said Jim Ballingall,
vice president of worldwide marketing for UMC. We have been
working with leading Bluetooth OEMs and IP creators such as
Parthus to develop RF CMOS technologies that will make Bluetooth
chips more cost-effective than the Bluetooth samples and prototypes
that currently utilize BiCMOS technology. Parthusˇ¦ RF on
CMOS solution makes an excellent addition to UMCˇ¦s portfolio
of resources that enables our customers to develop Bluetooth
designs at a lower cost and within shorter market windows."
About
RF on CMOS
The
radio is a critical component of any wireless system, providing
the antenna to the DSP link. It plays a key role in establishing
the core wireless system parameters, such as bandwidth and
operating range. The need for a minimum-cost, low-power consumption
radio that meets the Bluetooth specification is critical to
the adoption of Bluetooth in mass-market products, such as
cell phones and PDAs.
CMOS is
the most widely used process technology in the industry because
of its ability to deliver an extremely cost effective solution,
with minimum compromising of performance or power consumption.
Parthus' Bluetooth radio on CMOS development is focused primarily
on Bluetooth and GPS applications, as these lend themselves
to low-cost, CMOS implementation.
In-depth
device characterization and RF test circuit evaluation have
allowed Parthus to leverage the ultimate in low-cost IC technology
to deliver highly integrated radio solutions operating at
2.4GHz.
About
ASICplus
UMC's
ASICplus program is its response to the increase in demand
from its customers for ASIC services. The first program of
its type in the industry, UMC has teamed up with leading fabless
ASIC companies to provide full ASIC services to system houses
and fabless ASIC companies to provide full ASIC services to
system houses and fabless semiconductor companies. The program
gives customers the same advantages previously enjoyed by
only large COT companies. ASICplus offers a value-added, lower
cost alternative for the development of today's leading-edge
ICs, focusing on front-end design solutions and backend assembly
and test services.
About
Parthus Technologies
Parthus
Technologies is one of the world's leading providers of complete
platform level intellectual property (IP) solutions targeting
the mobile Internet market. Incorporating radio, baseband
and software design solutions, Parthus' unrivalled range of
mobile Internet platforms are used by the world's largest
microprocessor companies and electronics manufacturers in
MP3, GPS, GPRS, GSM, 3G and Bluetooth applications. Parthus'
broad range of platforms powers a diverse range of mobile
Internet devices, such as cellular handsets, Smartphones,
automobiles, personal audio players and PDAs. The company
leverages seven years of IP development experience to deploy
platforms that lead the industry in terms of ultra-high processing
power and low power consumption, and deliver significant cost
and time-to-market advantages to its customers. Parthus is
headquartered in Dublin with offices in six countries and
is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE:PRH) and NASDAQ
(Nasdaq:PRTH). More information on Parthus is available at
http://www.parthus.com.
ASICplus is a trademark of UMC. All other trademarks
or registered trademarks are the property of their respective
owners.
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