CHARTERED JOINS ARM FOUNDRY PROGRAM FOR MULTI-CORE MANUFACTURING

Licensing agreement accelerates access to ARM 32-bit cores on Chartered's semiconductor manufacturing processes

MILPITAS, Calif., US and CAMBRIDGE, UK - June 24, 2002 - Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing [(Nasdaq: CHRT); (SGX-ST: Chartered)], one of the world's top three semiconductor foundries, and ARM [(LSE: ARM); (Nasdaq: ARMHY)], the industry's leading provider of 16/32-bit embedded RISC processor technology, today announced that Chartered has joined the ARM Foundry Program. Through the Program, Chartered has licensed the ARM7TDMI® core and the ARM946E™ core, two of the most popular 32-bit RISC ARM® microprocessors, on processes ranging from 0.25 micron to 90 nanometer. This agreement also enables Chartered to have access to the ARM1022E™ core for future designs.

Additionally, Chartered announced that the ARM cores will be used as part of the development and qualification of their product solutions. As the first foundry to announce the use of ARM cores as qualification vehicles, ARM cores will be silicon-validated on technologies from Chartered ahead of customer engagement, speeding time-to-market, and lowering risk in today's competitive system-on-chip (SoC) semiconductor market.

"Bringing Chartered Semiconductor on board as an ARM approved foundry further demonstrates our commitment to expanding the choices available in the ARM Foundry Program," said Bryn Parry, general manager, IP Products, ARM. "Chartered's renowned expertise in mixed-signal manufacturing will be extremely valuable to our Partners in key convergence application markets, where our cores have established themselves as integral to a wide variety of successful products."

Total Product Solutions Approach to SoC
The relationship with ARM underscores Chartered's "total product solutions" approach, which provides customers access to the key blocks required to develop SoC products. These blocks include leading edge and mainstream manufacturing technologies, as well as advanced design kits consisting of standard cell and input/output (I/O) libraries, and third-party intellectual property (IP) components and mixed-signal process design kits (PDK).

Chartered has successfully built designs with ARM cores on various process technology nodes for multiple customers who have a full implementation ARM license. This agreement provides ARM Partners in the Foundry Program with access to the same cost effective, silicon processes at Chartered. This access, along with having the ARM cores silicon proven, provides a time-saving and lower cost approach for processor-based designs to be manufactured at Chartered.

"Adding silicon-proven ARM cores to our SoC product solutions is an important step for Chartered's IP access strategy that provides companies with greater flexibility and freedom of choice in their system solutions," said Michael Buehler-Garcia, vice president of Business Development and Worldwide Marketing at Chartered. "This type of licensing agreement also reduces the barriers to entry that often hinder companies from being able to take advantage of the powerful capabilities of ARM microprocessor technology, and provides broader access to the critical building blocks needed to develop new devices for the converging communications, computing and consumer electronics markets."

The ARM7TDMI core delivers exceptional 32/16-bit code density and super low-power consumption, while the ARM946E core includes ARM DSP extensions and Harvard caches for high-performance embedded applications.

Today's announcement builds upon the recent series of IP initiatives by Chartered with the Virtual Component Exchange, Unive and Fujitsu Digital Technologies focused on ensuring open access to "hardened" mixed-signal and analog IP. These efforts are now complemented with early access to ARM cores for Chartered's most advanced semiconductor processes.

Availability
Design kits for Chartered processes will be available beginning this month for the ARM7TDMI core and for the ARM946E core in the third quarter 2002.

About Chartered
Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, one of the world's top three silicon foundries, is forging a customized approach to outsourced semiconductor manufacturing by building lasting and collaborative partnerships with its customers. The Company provides flexible and cost-effective manufacturing solutions for customers, enabling the convergence of communications, computing and consumer applications. In Singapore, Chartered operates five fabrication facilities and has a sixth fab in the process of being developed as a 300mm facility.

A company with both global presence and perspective, Chartered is traded on both the Nasdaq Stock Market (Nasdaq: CHRT) and on the Singapore Exchange (SGX-ST: CHARTERED). Chartered's 4,000 employees are based at 12 locations around the world. Information about Chartered can be found at www.charteredsemi.com

About ARM
ARM is the industry's leading provider of 16/32-bit embedded RISC microprocessor solutions. The company licenses its high-performance, low-cost, power-efficient RISC processors, peripherals, and system-on-chip designs to leading international electronics companies. ARM also provides comprehensive support required in developing a complete system. ARM's microprocessor cores are rapidly becoming a volume RISC standard in such markets as portable communications, hand-held computing, multimedia digital consumer and embedded solutions. More information on ARM is available at www.arm.com.

About the ARM Foundry Program
The ARM Foundry Program is an innovative business model that enables original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in emerging markets to gain access to ARM processor technology for use in the design and manufacture of advanced system-on-chip (SoC) solutions. There are currently 40 Partners in the Foundry Program, which was launched in 2000. ARM now offers the ARM7TDMI core, the ARM922T™ core, the ARM946E core and the ARM1022E core through the Program.

The Foundry Program offers a flexible partnership model that accelerates the time-to-market for ARM core-based designs and enables OEMs, which do not have access to fabrication facilities, to work directly with an approved ARM semiconductor foundry. Unlike a traditional ARM license, where a licensee gains both manufacturing and design rights, the ARM Foundry Program builds a three-way Partnership between ARM, an approved silicon foundry, and an OEM.

ARM and ARM7TDMI are registered trademarks of ARM Limited. ARM946E, ARM1022E and ARM922T are trademarks of ARM Limited. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. "ARM" is used to represent ARM Holdings plc (LSE:ARM and Nasdaq:ARMHY); its operating company ARM Limited; and the regional subsidiaries ARM INC.; ARM KK; ARM Korea Ltd.; ARM, Taiwan; and ARM France SAS.

[ top ]