SoC Technology Center of Industrial Technology Research Institute Joins OCP-IP

PORTLAND, OR — September 27, 2005 — Open Core Protocol International Partnership (OCP-IP) announces that the SoC Technology Center (STC) of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), a leading non-profit research and development organization in Taiwan, has joined the organization. The addition of STC/ITRI to the membership roster illustrates the tremendous momentum, support, and adoption OCP-IP is enjoying throughout Asia.

ITRI’s mission includes applied research and technical services that accelerate the industrial development of Taiwan, by creating key, compatible and forward-looking technologies which meet industrial needs while strengthening industrial competitiveness. Also, to disseminate research results within the industrial sector in a timely and appropriate manner in accordance with the principles of fairness and openness, and finally, to foster the development of small and medium-sized businesses, which cultivate industrial, technology and human resources for the benefit of the nation.

“As one of the ITRI Labs working in concert with ITRI’s mission, STC concentrates on its task to provide extensive assistance for promoting Taiwan as a global SoC (System-on-a-Chip) design and service center,” said Dr. Chein-Wei Jen, the General Director of STC/ITRI. “In order to respond to increasing demands in developing IP's and various SoC designs, STC joined OCP-IP to be part of a worldwide technical forum that enables the Taiwan industry keep abreast of the global market.”

“We have seen tremendous support and adoption throughout all of Asia and our collaboration with STC/ITRI further increases the tremendous momentum OCP-IP has seen in the SoC Design Community,” said Ian Mackintosh, president OCP-IP “The missions of both STC/ITRI and OCP-IP are strongly aligned and form a powerful partnership.”

OCP-IP members receive free training, support, software tools, and documentation. This infrastructure allows IP and EDA vendors to eliminate the need to internally design, document, train and evolve a proprietary standard and set of support tools. This enables IP and EDA vendors to focus their efforts and resources on the challenges of developing IP that can be quickly integrated and easily verified in a wide variety of SoC designs. As a result, IC design teams can dedicate their critical resources to the design and delivery of products.

About OCP-IP

The OCP International Partnership Association, Inc. (OCP-IP), formed in 2001, promotes and supports the Open Core Protocol (OCP) as the complete socket standard ensuring rapid creation and integration of interoperable virtual components. OCP-IP's Governing Steering Committee participants are: Nokia [NYSE: NOK], Texas Instruments [NYSE: TXN], STMicroelectronics [NYSE: STM], Toshiba Semiconductor Group (including Toshiba America TAEC), and Sonics. OCP-IP is a non-profit corporation delivering the first fully supported, openly licensed, core-centric protocol comprehensively fulfilling system-level integration requirements. The OCP facilitates IP core reusability and reduces design time, risk, and manufacturing costs for SoC designs. VSIA endorses the OCP socket, and OCP-IP is affiliated with the VSI Alliance. For additional background and membership information, visit www.OCPIP.org.

About SoC Technology Center (STC)

With the mission of stimulating Taiwan’s semiconductor industry to transform into a high value-added industry with innovative design, STC was established on March 1, 2003 as a formal research center in ITRI, a leading non-profit R&D organization. From the industrial perspectives, STC focuses on DSP Core, Multimedia SoC, Low Power Design Technology, RF/Mixed Signal IC, and IC Design and Test Service to provide the most advanced technologies to meet domestic and international product development needs. STC also aims to link up system applications and processing technology for implementing the integration of SoC design and to help Taiwan become a global SoC design and service center through the infusion of technology R&D and industrial service. For more information about STC and ITRI, please visit http://int.stc.itri.org.tw/ or www.itri.org.tw/eng/.