UMC Appoints Lee Chung as Vice President of Corporate Marketing

Semiconductor industry veteran brings over 25 years of experience in process technology

HSINCHU, Taiwan, October 18, 2004 – UMC (NYSE: UMC), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced the appointment of Mr. Lee Chung as vice president of the company's Corporate Marketing Division. Mr. Chung will be in charge of functions that include identifying specific technologies needed to support market requirements, defining UMC's technology and IP roadmap, outlining product solution packages for each UMC technology node, and performing benchmark analyses. Lee will focus on leading-edge technologies such as 90nm, 65nm and 45nm. He will report directly to UMC CEO Dr. Jackson Hu.

Dr. Hu commented, "As shrinking process technologies continue to gain in complexity, it has become evermore important that foundry technologies be specifically optimized for different customer product applications. Lee's strong background in process technology development makes him an ideal candidate to help UMC with this effort. His experience working for leading IC product companies also gives him valuable insight into the needs of foundry customers. These qualities make him well poised to lead our marketing program and we look forward to his upcoming contributions to the company."

Mr. Chung has a long history in the semiconductor field dating back to 1979. He served as vice president of advanced process technology at Rockwell and Conexant Semiconductor Systems where he led the development and implementation of eight generations of logic, RF, and mixed-signal process technologies. He also served as a member of SEMATCH's Executive Technical Advisory Board from 2000 to 2001. Before joining UMC in 2003, he worked for AVAZ Networks as vice president of manufacturing/supply chain management and most recently at Lightcross Inc. as the company's vice president of manufacturing and process engineering.

Lee earned his BS degree in Chemistry from National Tsing Hua University. He also possesses an MBA from National University, an MS in Materials Science from UCLA, and an MS in Chemistry from Louisiana University at Monroe.

About UMC
UMC (NYSE: UMC, TSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry that manufactures advanced process ICs for applications spanning every major sector of the semiconductor industry. UMC delivers cutting-edge foundry technologies that enable sophisticated system-on-chip (SOC) designs, including 90nm copper, 0.13um copper, and mixed signal/RFCMOS. UMC is also a leader in 300mm manufacturing; Fab 12A in Taiwan and Singapore-based UMCi are both in volume production for a variety of customer products. UMC employs over 10,500 people worldwide and has offices in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Europe, and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com.