Companies achieve first silicon success for GS1532 and GS1560 on 0.18 micron process

Hsinchu, Taiwan, and Burlington, Ontario, August 1, 2002 - Gennum Corporation and UMC (NYSE: UMC), a world leading semiconductor foundry, today announced that they have achieved first pass silicon success for Gennum's GS1532 serializer and GS1560 deserializer and have moved into production with the devices for the video market. Based on UMC's 0.18um process technology, these devices are the industry's first single chip serializer and deserializer solutions to support high-definition (HD-SDI), standard-definition (SD-SDI) and compressed (DVB-ASI) digital video.

"At Gennum, we have made extensive use of UMC's Silicon Shuttle prototyping program for projects in all three of our markets and are now proceeding with production tape-outs. We have been extremely pleased with the quality of the UMC processes and the level of technical support provided," said David Lynch VP & GM Video Products for Gennum."

The GS1532 serializer and GS1560 deserializer are used to transmit and receive HD-SDI, SD-SDI and DVB-ASI digital video within and between professional video equipment. The send and receive pair dissipates remarkably little power and has a high level of integration. Both parts have excellent analog performance while integrating a cable driver and a host of digital processing features that include the insertion, detection and error correction of SMPTE control packets.

Dr. C.T. Lee, vice president of corporate marketing at UMC, said, "Gennum has created a first-of-its-kind product with the GS1532 and the GS1560. This achievement is a demonstration of UMC's commitment to providing its customers with market-driven technology and services in all IC sectors. We are delighted that our alignment with the company has resulted in the successful first-silicon pass and we look forward to taking part in the development of the company's future innovative products."

About Gennum
Gennum Corporation is a Canadian high technology company that designs, manufactures and markets silicon integrated circuits, modules and thin film hybrid microcircuit components for a variety of applications in three target markets: video products, hearing instrument products and data communications.

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