Faraday Delivers Silicon-Proven Structured ASIC Chips with ARM Architecture CPU, USB, Ethernet, and Wireless Connectivity

Faraday’s PC-1, the Industry's First Application-Specific Structured ASIC Now Available to Chip Designers of Peripheral Interface Applications; The Off-the-Shelf PC-1 Base Array Also Ready for Immediate Mass Production

HSINCHU, Taiwan and SUNNYVALE, California, – August 24, 2005 -- Faraday Technology Corporation (TAIEX: 3035), a leading ASIC and IP provider, today announced the availability of proven silicon for its PeripheralComposer-1™ (PC-1); the base array is also ready for mass production immediately. The PC-1 is the industry's first application-specific structured ASIC chip which pre-diffuses an ARM architecture processor, USB, Ethernet, 802.11b and other IP blocks in the base array, while remains flexible for customization and differentiation.

While the emerging peripheral interfaces are playing off each other, the USB, Ethernet and 802.11 have become the most adopted interconnect functions in thousands of applications. However, for system products with 100,000 or less annual unit requirements, what designers really need is a solution that combines the flexibility of FPGA with the price/performance advantage of ASSP. Since the PC-1 has embedded essential IP blocks in a standard-cell base array, it features excellent die size even though it's a structured ASIC.

"We are very excited about the first proven silicon of PeripheralComposer product line," said H.P. Lin, President of Faraday Technology. "Customers can greatly benefit from the significant NRE and unit price cost savings and time-to-volume advantages delivered by our off-the-shelf PC-1 base array."

The PC-1 structured ASIC chip integrates a low-power 190MHz ARM architecture CPU, USB2.0 Device and OTG ports, a 10/100 Ethernet port, an encryption engine, memory controllers, optional 802.11b wireless LAN modem, an 8-channel 10-bit 200 KSPS ADC, and other system peripherals and connectivity blocks. There are one million Metal Programmable Cell Array (MPCA) gates, 64 Kbyte memories, and 153 pins of Programmable I/Os for customization and differentiation. The PC-1 structured ASIC chip comes with a set of comprehensive software and hardware development tools, which include: Linux and WinCE.Net operating systems, IDE, companion IP non-OS drivers, ICE, evaluation boards, and documentation.

"Faraday is unique in providing application-focused structured ASIC solutions which have appropriate IP contents," said Dr. George Hwang, Vice President of R&D and Marketing of Faraday. "We are excited to announce the proven silicon of PC-1 to our customers, and looking forward to the silicon validation of our next Composer structured ASIC family."

Availability and Pricing
Proven engineering samples of the PC-1 is available from Faraday now. Manufactured in UMC's 0.18ìm process and packaged in 308-/388-/384-/484-pin FBGA, the PC-1 chips takes only 25-day turn-around time. The typical NRE is US$144,000 and the chip is priced at US$13 in 10,000 piece quantities. For more information about the PC-1 structured ASIC, please contact local sales or visit: http://www.faraday-tech.com/PeripheralComposer

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