ASE Announces Milestone Shipment of 100 Million Bluetooth Chips.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Incorporated (ASE) (TAIEX:2311) (NYSE:ASX), the world's largest semiconductor packaging and test company, announced today that it has assembled, tested, and shipped over 100 million Bluetooth chips for CSR (LSE:CSR.L).

CSR, the global leader in Bluetooth technology, has experienced exponential growth in the Bluetooth market, and as of December 2004, it had captured 45% market share, an increase of 23% over 2003. CSR's share of design wins also continues to be the highest across all applications, with the company providing Bluetooth chips for 55% of all mobile phone handsets, 85% of all mobile phone headsets, and 83% of all laptop computers. According to IC Insights, the Bluetooth chipset segment of the total wireless networking market is forecasted to grow from $580 million to $1.5 billion over the 2004-2008 time period. IC Insights also believes that the ASP of a Bluetooth chipset in 2008 will be about one quarter of the price in 2002, fuelling wider-spread adoption.

The semiconductor supply chain process of probe, assembly, and test for the Bluetooth chips took place between ASE's Chung Li and Kaohsiung facilities, with substrate materials also supplied from manufacturing lines strategically located within these two sites. The recent fire incident at ASE Chung Li had little impact on CSR's Bluetooth chip shipment as ASE was quickly able to relocate and remobilize its entire manufacturing efforts at its Kaohsiung facility. This move prevented CSR's Bluetooth chip production lines from being adversely impacted. Immediately following the incident, ASE executed strong recovery plans, which have successfully sought to minimize the impact of the fire on all its customers.

"The recent fire incident at ASE's Chung Li facility had limited impact on the delivery of CSR's Bluetooth chips, due to ASE's extremely efficient redeployment of manpower, material, and equipment to alternative facilities," mentioned John Hodgson, CEO, CSR. "Our team has been working closely with ASE for over five years and recognize the company for having excellent semiconductor assembly and test solutions, backed by a superior customer service and support organization. We look forward to continuing this relationship as we collaborate on advanced packaging technologies for our leading-edge Bluetooth chips."

"We have enjoyed a long-standing partnership with CSR and are delighted to be part of a major milestone in the company's history," said Dr Tien Wu, President of ASE Americas, Europe, ASE (U.S.), Inc. He added, "ASE has a strong appreciation for CSR's excellent supplier relationship management, and is fully committed to providing CSR with our complete support, particularly in respect of the recent event at our Chung Li facility. As the Bluetooth market continues to thrive, CSR can rely on ASE's technology partnership to meet emerging next-generation Bluetooth requirements."

About CSR

CSR plc (Cambridge Silicon Radio) is a leading provider of single-chip radio devices for short-range wireless communication. CSR offers developed hardware/software solutions for Bluetooth based around BlueCore, a fully integrated 2.4 GHz radio, baseband and microcontroller. BlueCore features in over 60 per cent of all qualified Bluetooth enabled products and modules listed on the Bluetooth website with industry leaders including Nokia, Dell, Panasonic, Sharp, Motorola, IBM, Apple, NEC, Toshiba, RIM and Sony using BlueCore devices in their range of Bluetooth products.

CSR is now producing its fourth generation BlueCore devices to support the recently released Enhanced Data Rate standard. In November 2004 CSR announced the first single chip IEEE802.11a, b, g embedded solution specifically targeting the mobile phone and consumer electronics markets.

CSR has its headquarters in Cambridge, UK, and offices in Richardson, Texas, USA; Tokyo, Japan; Seoul, Korea; Taipei, Taiwan; Aalborg, Denmark; and Lund, Sweden.

About ASE Group

The ASE Group is the world's largest provider of independent semiconductor manufacturing services in assembly and test. As a global leader geared towards meeting the industry's ever growing needs for faster, smaller and higher performance chips, the Group develops and offers a wide portfolio of technology and solutions including IC test program design, front-end engineering test, wafer probe, wafer bump, substrate design and supply, wafer level package, flip chip, system-in-package, final test and electronic manufacturing services through Universal Scientific Industrial Co Ltd, a member of the ASE Group. The Group generated sales revenues of $2.45 billion in 2004 and employs over 30,000 people worldwide. For more information about the ASE Group, visit www.aseglobal.com.