Industry-Leading UWB Chip Providers Incorporate ARM Processor Technology

ARM (LSE:ARM) (Nasdaq:ARMHY) today announced that industry-leading UWB chip and hardware companies Alereon, Focus Enhancements, Mindtree Consulting, Pulse~LINK and Staccato Communications are integrating ARM9(TM) family microprocessor technology in their upcoming networking and consumer device products. The comprehensive feature sets of the ARM9 family enables UWB developers to implement leading-edge systems, while delivering considerable savings in chip area, development costs and power consumption, making it the ideal solution for the high-volume, wireless technology demands of UWB design.

The industry momentum behind the licensing of ARM9 microprocessor technology for UWB development will provide a significant time-to-market advantage for the introduction of UWB chipsets and hardware. UWB, a high-speed, short-range wireless technology, is ideal for effortlessly transferring digital content between devices in different entertainment and computing groups in the home, such as digital video recorders, set-top boxes, televisions and personal computing (PC) peripherals.

"UWB industry activity has approached reality in the last year as some suppliers have begun sampling complete solutions, and standards-based specifications are being released," said Stan Bruederle, Research vice president for Gartner Semiconductor Research. "2006 is expected to be the year we see first volume system production with accelerating growth in 2007."

Additionally, because ARM9 family processors provide a standard programmable platform, they are the ideal solution for implementing a flexible MAC layer which can be updated to support standard changes or necessary enhancements for compliance and interoperability certification. Further, design teams must ensure their solutions are scalable with the ability to accommodate significant changes in standards and additions to functional requirements that may arise as standard and usage scenarios stabilize. The ARM9 family processors provide an easy migration path between product generations with an established ecosystem of users and third-party providers, to help ensure the seamless addition of future functionality.

"UWB is reaching a point in its development where system integrators can integrate the technology directly into their products," said Dave Steer, director of US Segment Marketing, ARM. "The ARM9 family of processors enables integrated solutions for the commercial deployment of UWB technology-based wireless connectivity in consumer electronic devices such as digital displays, DVD players, set-top boxes, as well as handheld products such as PDAs and digital cameras, to be successfully designed to meet performance, quality and cost requirements - all of which are key elements to making UWB technology a reality in the consumer marketplace."

EDITORS' NOTES:

The following UWB chip providers companies endorse ARM technology:

"We chose the ARM968E-S(TM) processor for our Wireless USB device solution based on its industry leading MIPS/mW and it's built-in single cycle memory architecture," said Eric Broockman, CEO, Alereon, Inc. "The ARM968E-S processor has enabled us to get to market sooner and provide our customers with a flexible solution that meets their very stringent power and size requirements."

"We chose this architecture for the integration of control and MAC functions primarily because ARM provided these features in a hard macro, ready-made for our target foundry process" said Tom Hamilton, EVP and GM of FOCUS Enhancements' semiconductor group. "In addition, ARM provided a very high performance solution which occupied a small area and had leading power efficiency - all critical for delivering a superior UWB solution. We have been able to benefit from a broad developer base and support infrastructure, allowing us to focus our efforts on continuing innovation in wireless transmission quality without sacrificing our time-to-market goals."

"MindTree is committed to developing intellectual property for short range wireless silicon that delivers high performance, low power and offer cost-effective solutions to our customers," said MindTree executive VP & CTO, Vinod Deshmukh. "As wireless consumer products become more complex in design, the need for increased power efficiencies is critical. The ARM processor enables us to meet these demands and is a perfect fit for our customer's sophisticated designs. As such, we have targeted our Bluetooth BlueWiz and upcoming WiMedia-based Ultra-Wideband UltraWiz portfolio of IPs specifically to ARM processors."

"ARM is the world's leading provider of embedded solutions. Their proven RealView(R) development tools and overall support infrastructure enabled Pulse~LINK to develop our CWave(TM) Gigabit Baseband/MAC IC with confidence," said John Santhoff, Pulse~LINK founder and CTO. "Knowing we could depend on the ARM processor to reliably meet all of our processing requirements allowed us to focus on developing the fastest UWB chipset in the industry."

"Staccato is committed to delivering the best-in-class, single-chip, all-CMOS solution for Certified Wireless USB applications. The choice of the ARM architecture for our RipcordTM solutions was driven by this commitment," said Robert Aiello, founder and CTO, Staccato Communications. "As the leader in embedded wireless solutions, ARM processors are power efficient, providing the low-power consumption and small die size necessary for competitive wireless connectivity solutions. Equally important, in choosing ARM IP we were able to draw upon a global partner and support network to confidently meet our development timeline for the commercial deployment of our integrated UWB solution."

About ARM

ARM designs the technology that lies at the heart of advanced digital products, from mobile, home and enterprise solutions to embedded and emerging applications. ARM's comprehensive product offering includes 16/32-bit RISC microprocessors, data engines, 3D processors, digital libraries, embedded memories, peripherals, software and development tools, as well as analog functions and high-speed connectivity products. Combined with the company's broad Partner community, they provide a total system solution that offers a fast, reliable path to market for leading electronics companies. More information on ARM is available at http://www.arm.com.

ARM and RealView are registered trademarks of ARM Limited. ARM9 and ARM968E-S are trademarks of ARM Limited. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. "ARM" is used to represent ARM Holdings plc; 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.; ARM Belgium N.V.; AXYS Design Automation Inc.; AXYS GmbH; ARM Embedded Solutions Pvt. Ltd.; and ARM Physical IP, Inc.

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