Hsinchu, February 15, 2001 - UMC (NYSE: UMC), the world leading semiconductor foundry, and Giga Solution Tech. Co., Ltd., the leading RF testing company, announced today the availability of RF/Mixed-mode design kits for UMC's 0.25um and 0.18um CMOS processes. The design kits enable Agilent's Advanced Design System (ADS) software to work with UMC's Silicon CMOS (Si-CMOS) technology, helping to speed the development of Radio Frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) used in wireless communication applications such as blue-tooth and mobile phones.

Agilent's ADS software is widely used in radio frequency (RF) and mixed-signal circuit development, and UMC's Si-CMOS technology is optimized for developing chips with an ideal balance of high performance and low power consumption required by today's wireless communication devices.

"Through this agreement, customers can now access specialized design kits proven by Giga Solution and optimized for Agilent's ADS software and UMC's state-of-the-art Si-RF 0.25um and 0.18um CMOS processes. The availability of this resource will enable RFIC designers to produce high-performance wireless communication chips with a shorter development cycle, and we expect to expand this offering to include our advanced 0.13um generation by Q2 this year." said Dr. Fu-Tai Liou, Chief Technology Officer of UMC.

L. P. Chen, President of Giga Solution, said "It is becoming increasingly important for RF test companies to help foundries provide enhanced solutions for RFIC designers to accelerate their time-to-market, such as better verified RF models, automatic design, testing and proven simulation technologies. The cooperation between UMC and Giga Solution gives customers access to this combination, allowing them to capitalize on timing-critical market windows"

This design flow also includes symbols, custom palette, corner case, circuit optimization and tuning, automatic parameter call back function and better user interface with easy installation and maintenance. More information can be obtained by contacting UMC's regional sales office or at http://www.umc.com.

Agilent Technologies is a global leader in designing and manufacturing test, measurement and monitoring instruments, systems and solutions, and semiconductor and optical components. Agilent's Advanced Design System, which is developed and marketed by Agilent's EEs of EDA product group, is a complete set of design technologies that provides an integrated, end-to-end communication signal-path-design solution to developers of such products as cellular and portable phones, pagers, wireless networks, and radar and satellite communications systems. The Advanced Design System includes leading edge RF, analog, DSP and electromagnetic tools integrated with accurate models. Information about products from Agilent's EEsof EDA product group can be found on the Agilent's World Wide Web via http://www.agilent.com.

Giga Solution Tech. Co., Ltd. is a new RF testing company with mission to provide professional RF testing. The experienced RF testing expertise may help foundries, IDM and fabless companies to hold the reins of their core RF technologies more efficiently. With advanced RF testing technology, Giga Solution also provides value added RF device modeling and design kits. With professional RF testing technology, Giga Solution will stand as the strategic partner to help customers to march into RFIC implementation and thus promote the wireless applications. More information about Giga Solution Tech. Co., Ltd. can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.giga-solution.com.