Faraday Implements Ultra Small ARM926EJ-S Hard Core in UMC 0.13um Process

Optimized circuit & layout capability enables 20% better performance and 30% smaller area compared to TSMC offering

Hsinchu, Taiwan, and Sunnyvale, California -- April 2, 2007 -- Faraday Technology Corporation (TAIEX: 3035) today announced that it has implemented the ARM926EJ-S™ hard core in UMC 0.13um process. It features ultra small size of 3.4mm2 (16KB/16KB I/D cache sizes) and extremely low power consumption with high performance which could reach 300MHz. Faraday also provides companion peripheral IPs, development platform for ARM926EJ-S™ to fulfill the market needs and accelerate the customer’s design cycle. The hard core of ARM926EJ-S™ in UMC 0.13um is available now, and 90nm one will be ready in Q2, 2007.

Announced in 1998, the ARM9 architecture has become the most widely used CPU cores for System-On-Chip (SOC) solutions ranging from cell phones, PDAs, digital cameras, to audio/video platforms. The ARM926 EJ-S™ makes several important enhancements, and among other things makes it possible for multiple ARM926 CPUs to work in a single system. As application software sophistication continues, the die size, performance, and power consumption becomes the biggest differentiations. And Faraday now has the
most competitive ARM926 EJ-S™ around.

“In the sea of me-too ARM926 EJ-S™ implementations, Faraday has now delivered the most competitive one,” said Charlie Cheng, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Faraday. “I am proud to deliver this solution to our customers, as their dual-core SOC chips will benefit both from high clock speed as well as small die size.”

Design implementation always plays an important role in Faraday’s ASIC business flow. Based on well versed synthesis skill, physical design and verification expertise, Faraday achieved the optimized performance, area and power consumption ARM926EJ-S™ hardcore and succssfully delivered it in a very short period. Just as one example, Faraday is able to customize the development of cache memory, a critical factor in any microprocessor performance. As a result, the Faraday’s ARM926 EJ-S™ is only 3.4 mm2 in size, and over 300 MHz in speed, compared to published TSMC offering, which is over 5 mm2 in size, and merely 240 MHz in speed.

“As one of the largest IP and ASIC design service companies in Asia, Faraday is experienced in library design, process technology, and backend integration, which are key factors for our provision of the most competitive ARM926EJ-S™ hard cores with the best price performance ratio,” said H.S. Wang, Vice President of IP Development. “The competitive hard cores in 0.13um implemented by Faraday’s proprietary libraries demonstrate our superior physical implementation capabilities.”

Availability

The hard cores of ARM926EJ-S in UMC 0.13um is available now, and the 90nm hard cores will be ready in Q2 2007.

About Faraday Technology Corporation

Faraday Technology Corporation is a leading silicon IP and fabless ASIC vendor. The company's broad silicon IP portfolio includes 32-bit RISC CPUs, DSPs, MPEG4, H.264, PHYs/Controllers for USB 2.0, Ethe rnet, Serial ATA, PCI Express, Cell Library and Memory Compiler. With more than 700 employees and 2006 revenue of US$171 million, Faraday is one of the largest fabless ASIC companies in the Asia-Pacific region, and it also has a significant presence in other world-wide markets. Headquartered in Taiwan , Faraday has service and support offices around the world, including the U.S. , Japan , Europe, and China . For more information, please visit: www.faraday-tech.com