UMC Appoints Patrick Lin as Chief SoC Architect

Creation of new position addresses customer SoC design integration requirements

SUNNYVALE, Calif., January 15, 2004 - UMC (NYSE: UMC), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced the appointment of Patrick Lin as chief SOC architect to lead the company's System Architecture Support group. The creation of this new position, based here at the company's Silicon Valley office, adds a unique dimension to foundry services by providing focused, targeted support for customers designing sophisticated SoCs on UMC's process technologies. Patrick will direct UMC's IP management and overall design support strategies and will report directly to UMC CEO Dr. Jackson Hu.

"We are pleased that Patrick will be heading UMC's System Architecture Support group," said Jackson. "As today’s SoC designs become more complex, UMC is committed to providing the most comprehensive design support available. Patrick's knowledge of developing IC system designs for numerous applications ranging from graphics, MPUs, and telecommunications will be invaluable toward helping customers to efficiently and effectively utilize our design and IP resources for their SoC designs."

Patrick brings over 25 years of electronics industry experience to UMC. Prior to joining the semiconductor foundry, Patrick was senior applications manager at ST Microelectronics, and after that Cypress Semiconductor. He also led an engineering team of 16 at Optical Microwave Network to develop a digital video broadcasting integrated receiver decoder, and directed the development of several microwave and telecommunication products. Other companies benefiting from Patrick's expertise include Western Digital, Verticom, Zilog, and Signetics. Mr. Lin, earned an MS in Electrical Engineering from San Jose State University, and an MS in Mathematics from Northeast Missouri State University.

About UMC
UMC (NYSE: UMC, TSE: 2303) 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 90nm copper, 0.13um copper, embedded DRAM, and mixed signal/RFCMOS. UMC is also a leader in 300mm manufacturing; Fab 12A in Taiwan is currently in volume production for a variety of customer products, while Singapore-based UMCi is now in pilot production. UMC employs over 8,500 people worldwide and has offices in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Europe, and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com.