OKI, Faraday Technology, and UMC/UMCJ Partner to Deliver 90 nm and Below Design-to-Manufacture Services for consumer market

Customers can take advantage of Faraday's rich IP portfolio, OKI's front-end design expertise, and UMC/UMCJ's manufacturing excellence

Hsinchu, Taiwan and Tokyo, Japan -- January 29, 2007 -- Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TSE:6703), an innovative leader in the info-telecom, semiconductor and printer technolog ies , UMC Japan (UMCJ, JASDAQ: 6939), UMC's Japan based subsidiary, and Faraday Technology Corporation (TAIEX: 3035), a world leading fabless ASIC design service and silicon IP provider, today announced a partnership to offer streamlined design-to-manufacture services to target the global consumer market. The three-way partnership will allow customers to leverage the synergies of Faraday's extensive IP selection, Oki's front-end design expertise, and pervasive sales channels, and UMC/UMCJ's manufacturing excellence.

OKI and UMC have shared a successful and productive partnership since 2003. Along with the steady increase of IDM's adopting the “fab-lite” model, Oki establishes 90 nm and below design infrastructure to provide customers with competitive products . Faraday Technology was the optimal choice for expanding this partnership due to its extensive IP pool optimized for UMC's process technologies. The design-to-manufacturing partnership enables Oki to dedicate resources that would otherwise be used to construct a fab to focusing on its competitive product development and marketing strategies.

“Our strength is the Oki global brand, Japan and world wide market expertise and sales channels,” said Masahiko Morioka, President of Silicon Solutions Company at Oki Electric Industry . “OKI's business partnership with UMC and UMCJ in the past has complemented Oki's system LSI development. Now we are looking forward to Faraday's inputs of its beyond 90 nm IPs, design services and back-end support to bring more cost effective solutions with better performance and fast turnaround time to the Japanese and Asian markets . This agreement also enables us to focus our resources more effectively on our system know-how, marketing, and customer relationships. ”

Frank Wen , President of UMCJ, said “With more than four years of successful cooperation with OKI to serve the Japanese market, we are pleased to expand this partnership by including Faraday with its advanced 90 nm portfolios and back-end support. With the comprehensive set of solutions available through this three-way partnership, we look forward to passing these benefits on to customers in the Japan market.”

“We are very happy that Oki has chosen us as their IP and design service partner to consumer market . Faraday will benefit from Oki's global brand, its Japan market channels and long-term relationship with its customers,” said H. P. Lin , CEO of Faraday Technology. “Oki's brand plus UMC and UMCJ's manufacturing partnership further expands Faraday's global business scope.”

Faraday offers logic and mixed-signal ASICs, IPs and libraries down to 65 and 90 nanometers. At the current stage, Faraday provides OKI with its 90 nm IP portfolios and back-end design services. Faraday's silicon-proven IP portfolio is targeted for applications including digital imaging/video/surveillance, networking, and PC peripheral platforms.

About UMC

UMC is a leading global semiconductor foundry that manufactures advanced process ICs for applications spanning every major sector of the semiconductor industry. UMC delivers cutting-edge foundry technologies that enable sophisticated system-on-chip (SoC) designs, including volume production 90 nm, industry-leading 65 nm, and mixed signal/RFCMOS. UMC's 10 wafer manufacturing facilities include two advanced 300 mm fabs; Fab 12A in Taiwan and Singapore-based Fab 12i are both in volume production for a variety of customer products. The company employs approximately 12,000 people worldwide and has offices in Taiwan , Japan , Singapore , Europe, and the United States . UMC can be found on the web at www.umc.com .

About UMC Japan

UMC Japan (UMCJ) is Japan's first and only dedicated-silicon foundry, which provides advanced technologies and semiconductor manufacturing for contract customer. The company is a subsidiary of Taiwan based UMC (United Microelectronics Corp.). Further information can be found at www.umcj.com.

About Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.

Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is Japan's first telecommunications manufacturer f ounded in 1881, with its headquarters in Tokyo , Japan . OKI provides top-quality products, technologies and solutions to its customers through its info-telecom system business, semiconductor business and printer business. All three businesses function as a collective force to create exciting new products and technologies that satisfy a spectrum of customer needs in various markets. Visit OKI's global web site at www.oki.com.

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, Ethernet, 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.