ARM Expands Its Partnership Into System Design; Teams with Disk Control Design Experts PalmChip.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 23, 1996--Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) today announced at DiskCon '96 a strategic partnership with PalmChip, specialists in innovative mass storage control designs. This approach demonstrates ARM's commitment to mass storage applications and is the first of several planned partnerships into ARM's strategic markets.

PalmChip is nearing first silicon on its new, ARM Powered, patented disk controller architecture, CoreFrame, which provides a modular platform that eases CPU, logic and memory integration. This radically cuts development time in a market known for short product life cycles. Design time is further reduced by the architecture's simplified verification and re-use of the processor, DRAM and other macrocells.

"We partner with companies to give the best total solutions to our customers. This partnership strategy, which began with silicon vendors and third party operating system companies and has now expanded into end application market support, will bring total solutions for our customers," commented Robin Saxby, ARM president and CEO. "Partnering with PalmChip brings ARM an experienced and talented resource of application expertise and gives PalmChip early access to leading edge RISC technology."

"We are pleased to cement our relationship with the designers of the best processors for our market," added Jauher Zaidi, PalmChip president. "The high performance, low power, small size and high code density of the ARM processors made them the obvious choice."

PalmChip's first design will incorporate the ARM7TDMI core, a small, high-performance, low-power 32-bit RISC processor with the Thumb code compression extension, advanced EmbeddedICE in-chip debug system and enhanced DSP-capable multiplier. The Thumb extension delivers 32-bit RISC performance at 16-bit system costs through the efficient use of a second, compressed set of 16-bit instructions which reduces memory use by a third and minimizes system cost.

PalmChip is close to releasing its first ARM design: a controller for a disk drive, which goes into production next year. Future ARM-based designs in optical and flash storage are not far behind. -0-

Editor Notes: Advanced RISC Machines (ARM)

ARM designs, licenses and markets high-performance, low-cost, low-power consumption 32-bit RISC processors, peripherals and development tools for embedded control, consumer multimedia, DSP and portable applications. ARM also provides consulting and training. ARM licenses its technology to semiconductor partner companies, who focus on manufacturing, applications and marketing. The versatility of ARM's cores, together with the unparalleled breadth of the partnership's expertise, ensures that ARM-based solutions are available to meet almost every customer's processor needs. The ARM semiconductor partners are: AKM, Alcatel Mietec, Atmel ES2, Cirrus, Digital, GEC Plessey Semiconductors, LG Semicon, NEC, Oki, Samsung, Sharp, Symbios Logic, TI, VLSI, and Yamaha. Together they make ARM the world volume embedded RISC standard.

To learn more about ARM, please see our Web Site at http://www.arm.com

Thumb, EmbeddedICE, AMBA and ARM Powered are trademarks of Advanced RISC Machines Ltd.

Reader Contact: Liam Goudge Tel: [phone] e-mail: [e-mail]

PalmChip

Based in San Jose, Calif., PalmChip develops software and designs, licenses and markets cores that reduce mass storage application design time and cost. PalmChip also offers consulting for ARM hardware and software integration, as well as custom core design. PalmChip offers cores for CoreFrame, ATA host interface, triple on-the-fly ECC, buffer management and 264 megabyte Palmbus.

To learn more about PalmChip, please visit our Web Site at http://www.palmchip.com

PalmChip, CoreFrame, Palmbus and Palmchip Logo are trademarks of Palmchip Inc.

Reader Contact: Jauher Zaidi Tel: [phone] e-mail: [e-mail] -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: Photos of ARM and PalmChip executives available upon request.

CONTACT: Cain Communications

Mark Alden, 408/291-2580

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