NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH Licenses SMSC's MediaLB Technology

DUESSELDORF (Germany), HAUPPAUGE (New York) -- 26 Apr 2006 -- NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH and SMSC (Nasdaq: SMSC) today announced that they have reached a licensing agreement enabling NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH to enrich its automotive product portfolio with gateway and audio solutions that connect with the MediaLB interface. First silicon for development and prototyping will be available in the fourth quarter of calendar 2006.

NEC Electronics Europe is licensing SMSC’s MediaLB technology, supported by SMSC’s network interface controllers for its Media Oriented Systems Transport (MOST®). MOST is a de facto industry standard for automotive multimedia networking deployed by virtually every major European automobile manufacturer.  

MOST multimedia networking technology enables new classes of multimedia applications in automobiles.  It facilitates the efficient transport of real-time streaming multimedia, control and packet information over a single optical fiber or twisted pair wire, eliminating the need to run multiple wires throughout a vehicle, and enables automakers to decentralize infotainment functions into various components distributed around the vehicle.  MediaLB, available on all of SMSC’s Intelligent Network Interface Controllers (INICs), is a low cost, low pin count, serial on-PCB and inter-chip communication standard for multimedia applications.  Its synchronous connection to the MOST network can transport diverse multimedia signals.

“As the sophistication of in-vehicle communication systems grows, SMSC’s MediaLB technology is increasingly being adopted as a natural interface to connect those applications into the MOST network backbone,” said Christian Thiel, Managing Director of SMSC’s Automotive Infotainment Systems group.  “We are pleased that NEC Electronics has selected the MediaLB interface to provide the link between its gateway bus controllers and the network system, which gives NEC seamless access to all speed grades and physical layers of MOST.”

“A key goal for NEC Electronics’ automotive business is to enhance our leading position in the automotive gateway and audio markets,” Gerd Look, General Manager Automotive Business Group, NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH stated. “With the first integration of the MediaLB technology into our gateway microcontrollers, NEC Electronics will complement its current roadmap for this business, supporting the innovative communications network requirements required by future automotive applications.”

About NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH

NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH, headquartered in Duesseldorf, Germany, is a leading developer and supplier of semiconductor products in Europe. Committed to meeting customers' cost, performance and time-to-market requirements, the company offers solutions ranging from standard products to system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions, as well as customized products for next-generation designs. Our customers also benefit from state-of-the-art manufacturing from the global production network of our parent company, NEC Electronics Corporation. Additionally, NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH is the exclusive European sales and marketing channel of LCD modules from NEC LCD Technologies Ltd.  For more information visit http://www.eu.necel.com.

The Automotive Business Unit bundles all of NEC Electronics’ European automotive activities. Engineers with first-class silicon know-how who talk the customers’ language provide highly competent support for car makers and system suppliers. The product portfolio includes a broad range of automotive-specific microcontrollers, PowerMOSFETs and other components for applications such as body control, dashboard, gateway, airbag, car audio and infotainment systems. For more information on NEC’s automotive semiconductors visit www.eu.necel.com/automotive.

About SMSC

Many of the world’s most successful global technology companies rely upon SMSC as a go-to resource for semiconductor system solutions that span analog, digital and mixed-signal technologies.  Leveraging substantial intellectual property, integration expertise and a comprehensive global infrastructure, SMSC solves design challenges and delivers performance, space, cost and time-to-market advantages to its customers.  SMSC’s application focus targets key vertical markets including mobile and desktop PCs, servers, consumer electronics, automotive infotainment and industrial applications.  The Company has developed leadership positions in its select markets by providing application specific solutions such as mixed-signal PC system controllers, non-PCI Ethernet, ARCNET, MOST and Hi-Speed USB.

SMSC is headquartered in Hauppauge, New York with operations in North America, Taiwan, Asia and Europe.  Engineering design centers are located in Arizona, New York, Texas and Karlsruhe, Germany.  Additional information is available at www.smsc.com.

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Notes

MediaLB is a new inter-chip communication technology developed by SMSC and proposed to the industry as an open standard to efficiently transport multimedia data between ICs.  Today’s chip to chip interface solutions are lacking a high-speed but low pin-count bus able to carry all types of multimedia data which can occur in modern multimedia systems, such as audio and video streams, control data and packet data such as navigation map information. MediaLB is a local de-multiplexed version of MOST. It is a serial bus that can connect several ICs to the MOST network interface controllers and runs synchronous to MOST. MediaLB provides highly efficient access to the MOST network through a high-speed low-cost interface.  SMSC’s MediaLB IP implements both physical and application layers of MediaLB and supports up to 31 programmable logical channels and various host interfaces.