Faraday Reported a Record First Quarter with 35% International Business ASIC Design-Wins Using 0.13um

Structured ASIC, Silicon IP Availability, and Design Expertise Enables Transition from 0.18um to 0.13um

HSINCHU, Taiwan and SUNNYVALE, California, May 2, 2005 -- Faraday Technology Corporation (TAIEX: 3035), a leading ASIC and IP provider, today reported sales of NT$1,335 ($42 million USD) million for the quarter ended March 31, 2005, up 23.3% year over year. The shape of new design-wins in Q1 also bode well for quarters to come: over 35% of overseas ASIC design-wins are using 0.13um technology, and half of them use Faraday's structured ASIC technology or platform.

"2005 Q1 was a quarter that showed strong momentum of 0.13um technology adoption," said H.P. Lin, President of Faraday Technology. "For the first time, Faraday's international business, which includes North America, Japan , and Europe reported more 0.13um ASIC design-wins in a quarter than 0.18um designs. We are very excited about the business progress, and look forward to more 0.13um ASIC projects this year."

"Faraday has been getting ready for 0.13um design since 2001; Among the 100 0.13um test chips taped out in the past 3 years, many of which embedded complex IPs such as CPU, DSP, USB2.0, Codec, Ultra high-speed memory, Serial-ATA, PCI-Express, structured ASIC library, etc.," said George Hwang, Vice President of R&D and Marketing. "Although it seems compelling to move to smaller processing geometries, the cost of 0.13um wafers and masks was expensive, and design risks were high, many companies hesitated to move forward until recently. I'm very glad that after years of joint efforts between Faraday and our fab partner UMC, more and more of our target customers finally see 0.13um as good price-performance target silicon."

Indeed, as Nick Tredennick commented in a Gilder Technology Report -- Moore's Law & the Value Transistor , the cost-crossover point between generations appears when the more advanced technology finally matured, fabrication equipment expense well amortized, mask costs notably dropped, and design risks eventually lowered.

For Faraday's target customers in the consumer and computer peripheral markets, the 0.13um and 0.18um crossover point has just occurred. While the quarter-to-quarter percentage may fluctuate somewhat, the clear trend is that, 0.13um has arrived.

"In the past few months, we see very good traction on 0.13um and structured ASIC technology in US, Japan , and Europe , especially in the networking and communication markets," said Charlie Cheng, Vice President of International Business at Faraday. "It has been a clear trend for design houses in these regions to outsource more projects to Asia so they can be more focused on leading-edge technology development. Faraday's broad IP portfolio, strong design expertise and close foundry relationship are poised for helping customers to succeed."

About Faraday Technology Corporation

Faraday Technology Corporation is a leading silicon IP and fabless ASIC vendor. The company's broad IP portfolio includes 32-bit RISC CPUs, DSPs, and PHYs/Controllers for USB 2.0, Ethernet, Serial ATA and PCI Express. With more than 500 employees and 2004 revenue of US$159 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: http://www.faraday-tech.com