Amphion(tm) - Silicon Valley's first 'investors in people' accredited semiconductor company

San Jose, California and Belfast, Northern Ireland based IP cores vendor named as first semiconductor company to gain Investors in People quality standard with international status

Belfast, UK & San Jose, USA (March 7, 2002) - Amphion Semiconductor Ltd, the leading provider of semiconductor intellectual-property for broadband, wireless and multimedia System-on-a-Chip integrated circuit design, has been formally accredited as an 'Investors In People' organization with an 'International Status' endorsement for its US-based operations in Silicon Valley, California. This is the first Investors in People award of its kind to be granted to a semiconductor industry company.

The prestigious Investors In People Standard is a framework of benchmarked processes that all types of private and public sector organizations aspire to in order to continuously improve organizational performance through on-going employee development and the deployment of best practices in the workplace. "I'm especially delighted and very proud that Amphion is the first ever semiconductor company to bring the Investors in People Standard to Silicon Valley," commented JG Doherty, CEO of Amphion. "Investors in People UK has confirmed that Amphion is the first semiconductor business - chipless, fabless, wafer fab, whatever - to achieve Investors in People in the US, and the second ever company across all organizational sectors to have achieved it."

Amphion granted International Investors in People status "Investors in People is all about success through people, and Amphion is the first semiconductor company to meet this high standard," said Mrs. Lesley Moreland, Amphion's Director of Human Resources. "Amphion has earned its International Investors in People status for its corporate headquarters in Northern Ireland, and its global sales and marketing operations in San Jose. This year Amphion will be reassessed to include two additional sales offices in Milton Keynes, England and Montreal, Canada. Investors in People's adjudicating panel was most complimentary about Amphion's work ethos and company culture, especially the enthusiasm, loyalty and professionalism of its staff."

Founded in 1994 by Dr Doherty and Professor John V McCanny, and formerly known as Integrated Silicon Systems (ISS) until year 2001, Amphion now employs around 60 staff in 4 countries, many of whom have been involved in meeting the rigorous standards set by Investors in People. Through Investors in People, businesses expect to develop a flexible, motivated and well-trained workforce that continues to succeed in meeting organizational goals over the years. Investors in People is a practical human resources tool that helps harness employee training and personal development to bring about on-going success.

Amphion is now a world-leading provider to a global customer base of semiconductor intellectual-property (SIP) for silicon microchips destined for 'home gateway'/digital set-top box, personal imaging, and 4G/3G infrastructure with products for Wireless-LAN 802.11, MPEG-4 Video ('mp4'), MPEG-2 for Digital Video (DVB, DVD, etc), and Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) telecommunications. Amphion is an associate member of the Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA), and a founder member of the Virtual Socket Interface Alliance (VSIA).

About Investors In People
The Investors in People Standard was developed in 1990 in collaboration with the UK's leading businesses both large and small. The Standard provides a framework for improving business performance and competitiveness, through good practice in human resource development. There are currently more than 25,000 organizations that have achieved recognition under the Investors in People Standard equating to 24% of the UK workforce. This means there are currently more than five and a half million people involved with the Investors in People Standard. An organization that has achieved the Standard has been successful in adopting and maintaining its four fundamental principles: Commitment - to developing its people in order to achieve its aims and objectives; Planning - in order to be clear about is aims and its objectives and what its people need to do to achieve them; Action - developing its people effectively in order to improve its performance; and lastly; Evaluation - understanding the impact of its people development on its performance. For more information, visit http://www.iipuk.co.uk. Press Contact: Kate Love; e-mail: kate.love@grayling.co.uk ; tel: +44 (0)20 7255 5488

About Amphion
Amphion is the leading supplier of application-specific cores for IP-based System-on-a-Chip (SoC) integrated circuit designs for multimedia, data security, wireless and broadband communications. Amphion delivers high-performance solutions for video and image compression, advanced encryption, and speech and channel coding with a comprehensive range of silicon- optimized products. Using proprietary techniques for the direct-mapping of processing functions and algorithms into hardware, Amphion develops and licenses semiconductor intellectual-property (SIP) cores that are close to optimal in terms of power, cycles, and area - typically 1 to 3 orders of magnitude better than competing solutions. Amphion cores operate standalone, or by direct interface to industry-standard RISC and DSP processors, and can be easily migrated through different generations of fabrication technology, thus preserving engineering investments in SoC design. Amphion is a privately held company with corporate headquarters and engineering in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK and worldwide sales and marketing headquarters in San Jose, California, USA. Amphion was formerly known as Integrated Silicon Systems Ltd, or ISS. For more information, visit http://www.amphion.com. Press Contact: David Mann; e-mail: marcom@amphion.com ; tel: +44 (0)28 9050 4040

Notes to Editors:
Amphion, The Amphion logo, and "Virtual Components for the Converging World" are trademarks of Amphion Semiconductor Ltd. All other brand names or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.