Oki Adds New µPLAT, an Integrated Platform Series for SoC Development

Tokyo, Japan, March 24, 2004 -- Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TSE: 6703) today announced the µPLAT®-946, a platform equipped with an ARM946E-S™ microprocessor core that further enhances Oki's integrated platform series for system-on-chip (SoC) development. Oki also announced a development environment and a prototyping board for the µPLAT-946. Full-scale offerings of SoC based on this high-end platform will begin in April 2004.

"The µPLAT is widely recognized as a comprehensive platform-based design tool, capable of slashing the time required to develop SoC, and ensuring that our clients' final chip designs meet their requirements," said Akira Kamo, President of the Silicon Solutions Company at Oki Electric. "The addition of µPLAT-946 to the series allows Oki to offer its customers greater choice when selecting the products they need for SoC development."

"Oki's new ARM Powered® µPLAT-946 integrated platform will enable a new level of innovation in next-generation automotive, digital audio equipment and mobile phone applications," said Takio Ishikawa, president, ARM KK. "Oki and ARM have been close Partners in the development of Oki's ARM® core-based SoC solutions, and this announcement is further evidence of Oki's commitment to the ARM architecture."

Oki's µPLAT is a series of integrated SoC development platforms. Oki currently offers the µPLAT-7B, µPLAT-7C, µPLAT-7D, and µPLAT-92, soon to be joined by the µPLAT-946. The µPLAT provides system designers with a total solution that makes it possible to minimize design cycle times and increase design productivity and software content while reducing overall system cost.

Incorporating the ARM946E-S microprocessor for its CPU core and adding peripheral functions required to run operation systems, the newly introduced µPLAT-946 platform represents the flagship of Oki's high-end µPLAT platform architecture. The ARM946E-S processor core is a macrocell, widely used in embedded applications that require a good level of processing performance from a low-cost and low-power solution. The processor has various features required by the embedded market, including instruction and data caches. It also offers Tightly Coupled Memory (TCM) interfaces, AMBA™ AHB (advanced high-performance bus) bus interfaces, and a memory protection unit (MPU) supporting real-time operating systems (RTOS).

Along with the AMBA AHB System incorporated in the existing µPLAT series, the µPLAT-946 also offers the Multi-layer AHB System, which allows parallel accesses from multiple masters to multiple slaves in the system. With the Multi-layer AHB System, the µPLAT-946 extends the bus bandwidth in multiple masters system, improving chip performance drastically. With complete compatibility between the Multi-layer AHB System and the AMBA AHB System, the µPLAT-946 gives engineers even wider latitude in architecture design.

The µPLAT-946 development environment consists of a sample SoC model with a µPLAT-946 core, a test bench, and a test program. The environment lets customers rapidly develop a variety of SoC simply by adding customer's specific circuits and intellectual property (IP). The development environment offers two models to provide clients customers with a system bus selection capable of meeting their requirements: one model features AMBA AHB System, while the other features with Multi-layer AHB System.

Oki also offers a µPLAT-946 prototyping board. This board will allow clients to evaluate their software and circuits on FPGA (field programmable gate array) in the early development stages. The board allows customers to develop both hardware and software under condition similar to the real SoC before actual completion.

Oki intends to market the µPLAT-946 platform for applications such as automotive information equipment, digital audio equipment, and mobile phones. The company will begin full-scale design based on the µPLAT-946 platform in April 2004.

About µPLAT:
µPLAT is Oki's original integrated platform and design environment that significantly reduces SoC development time. The uniqueness of the µPLAT resides in its incorporation of the basic features common to any system into three basic platforms: the silicon platform, the software platform, and the support platform. The silicon platform provides the minimum functions of real-time operating systems (RTOSs), including a CPU from ARM Ltd., an external memory controller, timer functions, an interrupt controller, and an AMBA AHB interface, which provides easy connection to IP for expandability. The software platform offers RTOSs including µITRON, and middleware to be used with standard interfaces. The support platform offers software development toolkits, LSI development kits and prototyping boards.

About Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.:
Founded more than a century ago in 1881, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is Japan's first telecommunications manufacturer, with its headquarter in Tokyo, Japan. With the corporate vision, "Oki, Network Solutions for a Global Society," Oki Electric provides top-quality products, technologies and solutions to its customers through its telecommunications systems, information systems and electronic devices segments. All three segments are integrated into one effective organization that functions as a collective force to create exciting new products and technologies, including information and telecom converged solutions. Through its business activities, Oki Electric satisfies a spectrum of customer needs in various markets.

Notes:

• µPLAT is a registered trademark of Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. in Japan, Germany and the U.K.
• ARM and ARM Powered are registered trademarks of ARM Limited. ARM946E-S and AMBA are 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; ARM Consulting (Shanghai) Co.Ltd.; and ARM Belgium N.V.