UMC Foundry Design Kit for New Cadence Virtuoso Platform Speeds Production of 65NM Designs

Performance and Productivity Features of Latest Virtuoso Platform Now Supported by UMC's 65NM FDKs

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS), the leader in global electronic-design innovation, and UMC (NYSE: UMC) (TWSE: 2303), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced the availability of UMC 65-nanometer Foundry Design Kits (FDKs) for the latest Cadence® Virtuoso® custom design platform (IC 6.1) release. The kits will be available for designers using UMC's logic/mixed-mode 65-nanometer standard performance (SP) process and logic/mixed-mode RF 65-nanometer low-leakage (LL) process. The Cadence Virtuoso technology helps accelerate silicon-accurate design of analog, mixed-signal and RF devices.

"The availability of the 65-nanometer design kits will help our customers more quickly realize the performance and power consumption advantages of our production proven 65-nanometer SP and RF LL technology," said Patrick T. Lin, head of Worldwide IP Development and Design Support at UMC. "Integrating the performance and productivity features in the new Virtuoso platform with UMC's FDKs will dramatically accelerate development time for our customers to help them meet their timing-critical market windows for their 65-nanometer products."

Cadence Virtuoso solutions and UMC's 65-nanometer FDKs support designers in high-growth IC markets, such as wireless communications. These technologies offer advanced processes for unprecedented integration of digital and mixed-signal designs.

"This new FDK allows us to leverage advanced features of both UMC 65-nanometer process and the Cadence Virtuoso platform in our upcoming designs and helps us to meet time-to-market requirements," said C. J. Hsieh, associate vice president of SoC Development and Service at Faraday.

"The rapid development of UMC's 65-nanometer FDKs for the new Virtuoso technology underscores the importance of Virtuoso solutions among innovative mixed-signal and RF designers," said Charlie Giorgetti, corporate vice president of Product Marketing at Cadence. "We look forward to working with UMC to enable further FDKs with the latest Virtuoso solutions in support of our mutual customers' growing demand."

Availability

UMC's 65-nanometer SP and RF LL FDKs for the latest Virtuoso version, IC 6.1, are available through UMC's customer Web site, My.UMC.com, or by contacting any UMC account manager.

About UMC

UMC (NYSE: UMC) (TWSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry that manufactures advanced system-on-chip (SoC) designs for applications spanning every major sector of the IC industry. UMC's SoC Solution Foundry strategy is based on the strength of the company's advanced technologies, which include production proven 90nm, 65nm, mixed signal/RFCMOS, and a wide range of specialty technologies. Production is supported through 10 wafer manufacturing facilities that include two advanced 300mm fabs; Fab 12A in Taiwan and Singapore-based Fab 12i are both in volume production for a variety of customer products. The company employs approximately 13,000 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.

About Cadence

Cadence enables global electronic-design innovation and plays an essential role in the creation of today's integrated circuits and electronics. Customers use Cadence software and hardware, methodologies, and services to design and verify advanced semiconductors, consumer electronics, networking and telecommunications equipment, and computer systems. Cadence reported 2006 revenues of approximately $1.5 billion, and has approximately 5,300 employees. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with sales offices, design centers, and research facilities around the world to serve the global electronics industry. More information about the company, its products, and services is available at www.cadence.com.

Cadence and Virtuoso are registered trademarks, and the Cadence logo is a trademark of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.