Atmel Licenses ARM926EJ-S Core for Next-Generation Products

Atmel's SiliconCITY chip platforms and ARM926EJ-S core enable sophisticated systems-on-chip with first pass success

San Jose, CA and Cambridge, UK - Sept. 9, 2003 - Atmel® Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) and ARM, [(LSE: ARM); (Nasdaq: ARMHY)], the industry's leading provider of 16/32-bit embedded RISC microprocessor solutions, announced today that Atmel has licensed the synthesizable ARM926EJ-S™ 32-bit RISC processor core for its next-generation system-on-chip (SoC) products. This agreement is the latest in a long-standing partnership between Atmel and ARM. Atmel was one of the first licensees of the ARM7™ Thumb® core family, and ARM® core-based products are making a significant and steadily increasing contribution to Atmel's revenue stream. The ARM926EJ-S core will be implemented in a 130 nanometer process for a variety of standard and custom products.

"The ARM926EJ-S core will be used by Atmel for both ARM core-based standard products and ASIC implementations," said Alfredo Vadillo, Atmel's director for ASICs and ASSPs. "The synergy between standard products, ASSPs and ASICs is unique in the industry and forms the basis of our SiliconCITY™ strategy."

"Atmel has experienced considerable success with ARM core-based products, which have enabled them to significantly reduce the time-to-market for their SoC roadmap," said John Rayfield, VP US Marketing, ARM. "The licensing of the ARM926EJ-S core now enables them to further this success in sophisticated SoCs aimed at a wide variety of applications."

The advanced features of the ARM926EJ-S core are an ideal match for the next-generation SoC products that Atmel is developing. Based on one of the richest libraries of qualified IP blocks in the industry (including embedded memories, industry-standard interfaces and high-performance analog), Atmel has developed a series of ARM core-based platforms that can be rapidly evolved into high-performance, low-power ASICs, ASSPs or Standard Products according to client and market requirements. These products form the basis of Atmel's SiliconCITY platform-based products which are aimed at fast-growing applications areas such as GPS, telematics, mobile communications, portable data storage, high-security point-of-sale terminals, wireless networking (WiFi™ and Bluetooth®), digital rights management and next-generation digital multimedia. One of the first products based on the ARM926EJ-S core will be a SoC for advanced multimedia applications.

The ARM926EJ-S core features flexible instruction and data cache memories, tightly-coupled memory (TCM) interfaces and a memory management unit (MMU) that enhances the partitioning and security features of advanced real-time operating systems. It has separate instruction and data AHB interfaces for multi-layer AHB-based systems. It includes a 16 X 32-bit multiplier and DSP instructions that give it the single-cycle MAC capability demanded by high-bandwidth signal-processing applications. It supports 16-bit Thumb instructions and Java bytecode execution via its Jazelle® technology.

About SiliconCITY
SiliconCITY is the creative foundation for Atmel's ASIC/ASSP product strategy. It is built on re-useable and validated IP and architectures from Atmel's broad line of standard products and ASSPs within its System-on-Chip portfolio. Atmel has SiliconCITY platforms available now to give customers a significant time-to-market advantage. In addition, the common design infrastructure allows customers to seamlessly migrate from standard products to custom ASICs with confidence in first pass success. SiliconCITY from Atmel…Your System Foundation.

Information
Atmel's SiliconCITY System-on-Chip product information may be retrieved at: http://www.atmel.com/products/ASIC/

About Atmel
Founded in 1984, Atmel Corporation is headquartered in San Jose, California with manufacturing facilities in North America and Europe. Atmel designs, manufactures and markets worldwide, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and RF semiconductors. Atmel is also a leading provider of system-level integration semiconductor solutions using CMOS, BiCMOS, SiGe, and high-voltage BCDMOS process technologies.

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, handheld computing, multimedia, digital consumer and embedded solutions. More information on ARM is available at http://www.arm.com.

© Atmel Corporation 2003. All rights reserved. Atmel, the Atmel logo and combinations thereof are registered trademarks and others contained herein, are trademarks of Atmel Corporation or its subsidiaries. SiliconCITY is a trademark of Atmel Corporation. ARM, Thumb, Jazelle, ARM7TDMI and ARM926EJ-S are registered trademarks and trademarks of ARM Limited. "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; ARM France SAS; and ARM Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. WiFi is a trademark of the WiFi alliance. The Bluetooth word mark and logos are owned by the Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and any use of such marks by Atmel is under license. Other terms and product names in this document may be the trademarks of others.