Freescale, Philips and STMicroelectronics Expand Industry's Largest R&D Alliance; Crolles2 Alliance Partners Intend to Enhance Collaboration across Libraries and System-on-Chip Intellectual Property Blocks

CROLLES, France--(BUSINESS WIRE) -- April 11, 2005 -- The Crolles2 Alliance partners STMicroelectronics, Philips and Freescale Semiconductor have reached a preliminary agreement to cooperate on the creation and validation of high-level System-on-Chip (SoC) intellectual property (IP) blocks. Implementation and completion of this agreement is still subject to the successful conclusion of a contract between the partners.

The companies already work together as part of the Crolles2 Alliance in the research, development and industrialization of CMOS process technologies. The Alliance partners see a bundling of effort in generation, validation and support of high-level SoC IP blocks as a logical next step. The goal is to shorten the time-to-market for the increasingly complex chips demanded by today's systems.

The three Alliance partners plan to set up the Library and IP Partnership (LIPP) with operations across a number of sites. Potential sites include Grenoble, France, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, Austin, Texas and Bangalore and Noida in India, with headquarters in Eindhoven. LIPP will provide and support high-value re-usable SoC IP blocks that the partners will use in their System-on-Chip (SoC) designs at the 65nm CMOS node and beyond. Shared development of these standard yet design-intensive IP blocks means that each of the Crolles2 Alliance partners will be free to concentrate on its individual system-level competencies in the delivery of advanced SoCs to its customers. Consumers will benefit from earlier introduction of even more advanced multimedia and communications features in products that utilize the Crolles2 Alliance partners' SoC solutions.

The three partner companies already share a common set of design rules and foundation library sets as part of the Crolles2 Alliance joint technology development activities. The preliminary understanding is to extend this alignment to include their SoC IP blocks and re-use methodology.

"The preliminary understanding represents a major step forward in overcoming the design gap -- one of the biggest challenges for the semiconductor industry," said Bart De Loore, newly appointed general manager of the Alliance LIPP and former general manager of Philips Semiconductors IP ReUse Technology Group. "It is the first time in the industry that a group of major semiconductor companies has agreed to share proprietary SoC IP blocks. This move is designed to help the Alliance partners roll out complex right-first-time SoCs faster than ever before from their advanced CMOS process technologies."

Staff for the new Alliance LIPP organization initially will be drawn from the Alliance partners. Some of the first projects undertaken will be the development of re-usable IP blocks for advanced I/O interface standards, common analog IP blocks, embedded processors and SoC infrastructure IP for the Alliance's 65-nm CMOS process.

In the context of SoC architectures and IP re-use, LIPP will also coordinate the participation of Alliance partners in industry standardization initiatives such as Structure for Packaging, Integrating and Re-using IP within Tool-flows (SPIRIT), Open SystemC Initiative (OSCI), and Virtual Socket Interface Alliance (VSIA).

About Freescale Semiconductor

Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. is a global leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial, networking and wireless markets. Freescale became a publicly traded company in July 2004 after more than 50 years as part of Motorola, Inc. The company is based in Austin, Texas, and has design, research and development, manufacturing or sales operations in more than 30 countries. Freescale, a member of the S&P 500®, is one of the world's largest semiconductor companies with 2004 sales of $5.7 billion (US). www.freescale.com

About Royal Philips Electronics

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of $37.66 billion (EUR 30.3 billion in 2004). With activities in the three interlocking domains of healthcare, lifestyle and technology and 161,500 employees in more than 60 countries, it has market leadership positions in medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, color television sets, electric shavers, lighting and silicon system solutions. News from Philips is located at www.semiconductors.philips.com.

About STMicroelectronics

STMicroelectronics is a global leader in developing and delivering semiconductor solutions across the spectrum of microelectronics applications. An unrivalled combination of silicon and system expertise, manufacturing strength, Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio and strategic partners positions the Company at the forefront of System-on-Chip (SoC) technology and its products play a key role in enabling today's convergence markets. The Company's shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, on Euronext Paris and on the Milan Stock Exchange. In 2004, the Company's net revenues were $8.76 billion and net earnings were $601 million. Further information on ST can be found at www.st.com.