Philips, ARM and adelante Technologies join forces to develop a SoC platform for mobile infotainment

Philips, ARM and Adelante Technologies Join Forces to Develop a Common SoC Platform for Mobile Infotainment Applications

Eindhoven, The Netherlands, Cambridge, UK, Paris, France – June 10, 2002 - Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI), ARM [(LSA: ARM), (Nasdaq: ARMHY)] and Adelante Technologies, today announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the development of a common system-on-chip (SoC) platform for mobile infotainment applications.

This system solution will combine Philips' systems and application know-how and CoReUse™ and MoReUse™ programs with ARM's leading embedded RISC processor expertise and Adelante's open, integrated digital signal processing solutions. The first products will target the booming market for automotive infotainment applications.

The system solution will be based on Philips' Nexperia™ Mobile platform with its highly flexible IP toolkit and system expertise, the ARM® PrimeXsys™ platform and Adelante's Galaxic™ DSP technology, which includes open DSP cores, applications specific co-processors and its C-based Atmosphere™ development tools.

"The Nexperia Mobile platform offers designers an architecture with reusable hardware and software modules that provide a high level of functionality implemented mainly in software, which enables easy upgrade and modification capabilities," said Pascal Langlois, vice president and general manager, Global Market Segment AutOmotive, Philips Semiconductors. "The Nexperia Mobile platform is the next instance of the Nexperia architecture concept. It clearly shows Philips' ability to provide solutions in converging markets and application domains."

"This joint collaboration specifically demonstrates the further acceptance of PrimeXsys as an architecture in the market and the wider range of ARM technologies being provided to industry leaders," said Bryn Parry, general manager , IP Products Division, ARM. "ARM is pleased to be working on this automotive infotainment application with Adelante's Galaxic DSP technology."

Said Karsten Popp, CEO of Adelante Technologies: "Adelante welcomes the opportunity to add its leading digital signal processing expertise to ARM's industry-leading embedded microprocessing solutions to form the basis of Philips' applications for the high-volume consumer market. This is the industry's first application using an open, licensable RISC plus open DSP system-on-chip platform. The Philips-ARM-Adelante SoC platform will enable customers to develop the breakthrough products of the multimedia age."

The increasing requirements from consumers who desire a richer multimedia experience - any time, any place - has increased the complexity level of SoC solutions. These solutions will offer the consumer next-generation mobile navigation systems, entertainment systems, as well as Internet and communications services access while being on the move. Additionally, there is an increasing pressure on time-to-market with new features that can only be handled by using a re-usable architecture framework with pre-defined and pre-verified hardware and software system components.

Using this kind of platform approach, derivative products can be made quickly and reliably by tuning and adding system components, that are either programmable or application-specific. A platform can be effectively used only within the scope of a well-defined application domain, of which each has its own power/cost/performance trade-offs, and which will determine the partitioning, selection and composition of system components.

About Philips
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of $28.8 billion (EUR 32.3 billion) in 2001. It is a global leader in color television sets, lighting, electric shavers, medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, and one-chip TV products. Its 186,000 employees in more than 60 countries are active in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics, domestic appliances, components, semiconductors and medical systems. Philips is quoted on the NYSE (symbol: PHG), London; Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other stock exchanges. News from Philips is located at www.semiconductors.philips.com

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, hand-held computing, multimedia digital consumer and embedded solutions. More information on ARM is available at www.arm.com.

About Adelante Technologies
Adelante Technologies is a leading developer of open, system-on chip (SoC) digital signal processing (DSP) solutions for the wireless, consumer infotainment and networking markets. Providing customers with the ultra-low power, low-cost and high-performance required in feature-rich devices of the multimedia age, Adelante solutions are based on a family of licensable, open DSP cores, sub-systems, application specific coprocessors, software development and tools. To date, more than 100 million products using Adelante technology have been shipped.

Adelante was founded in June 2001 from the merger of the DSP division of Philips Semiconductors and Frontier Design. In 2002 Adelante was listed in TIME Magazine's list of "Europe's 50 Hottest Tech Firms."