Alchemy Semiconductor Joins Wind River, MIPS Center of Excellence to Create Leading Software for High Performance/Low Power Processor Family.

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 21, 2001

Multi-Year Agreement Produces Popular VxWorks RTOS Supporting

First-to-Market 400 MHz, .5 Watt Au1000

Providing Faster Development Time for OEMs

Alchemy Semiconductor, Inc.(TM), an Austin-based fabless semiconductor company targeting the Internet Edge Device market, today announced it has signed an agreement with Wind River Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: WIND) to join the Wind River, MIPS Center of Excellence to deliver optimized solutions supporting the Au1000(TM) processor.

The Center of Excellence is a program established to collaborate closely on a one-on-one basis with key embedded semiconductor partners such as Alchemy to, in part, facilitate the porting, optimization and distribution of Wind River software for MIPS Technologies MIPS32 and MIPS64 process architectures.

The Alchemy Semiconductor Au1000 is a 400MHz, one-half watt, MIPS32(TM)-based system-on-chip (SOC) that is highly integrated with on-chip memory controllers and Internet access peripherals. Alchemy will be collaborating with Wind River to provide support for Wind River's popular VxWorks(R) real-time operating system (RTOS) and other leading development software. Wind River's commitment to MIPS Architectures is reflected by the creation of the Wind River, MIPS Center of Excellence announced last June. (See June 12, 2000 Wind River news release announcing MIPS, Wind River Center of Excellence initiative.)

According to a study conducted last year by Gartner Group/Dataquest, embedded processor cores based on flexible, high-performance, high-value 32- and 64-bit MIPS-based designs have the highest perceived demand of any processor architecture. This value has been augmented by Alchemy's world-class custom design team, bringing scalable performance, distinctive power dissipation capabilities, and high integration to the Au1000 - qualifying as the only microprocessor in its performance, power and price class in the market today.

In this relationship, the first new products to be supported by Wind River will be Tornado II and Tornado AE integrated development environments (IDEs) which includes the leading VxWorks and VxWorks AE real-time operating systems (RTOSs). Specifically, a Board Support Package (BSP) for Alchemy's Pb1000 development board will include support for the MIPS32-based SOC core CPU, and device support for PCMCIA and USB interfaces, display controller and touch screen, serial and modem ports, dual Ethernet, home PNA and CODEC audio.

"OEMs are increasingly interested in developing Internet appliances based on a premier RTOS, and time to market is critical for them," said Phil Pompa, Alchemy Semiconductor's Vice President of Marketing. "With Wind River's experience in embedded software, and in particular the popularity and integration capabilities of the VxWorks RTOS, our customers can spend their time on customer-specific development work and their core competencies."

"Alchemy Semiconductor is an important MIPS Center of Excellence partner and the award-winning Au1000 microprocessor is an enabler for current and next-generation Internet, consumer and enterprise devices," said John Fogelin, vice president and general manager of Wind River's Platforms business unit. "One of our goals in leveraging our commitment to MIPS architectures is to deliver products that allow embedded developers to quickly build product applications, allowing customers a competitive edge in the marketplace. We believe our work with Alchemy on the Au1000 and on future products will enhance our ability to help the industry move forward."

About Alchemy Semiconductor

Founded in Austin, Texas, in 1999, Alchemy Semiconductor is a fabless semiconductor company that designs, develops and markets high performance, yet very low power systems-on-a-chip (SOCs) for the Internet Edge Device market: Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) products, including both wireless hand-held enterprise PDAs and remote Internet access products; and Internet infrastructure products, such as routers and line cards. The company's founding team includes world-renown embedded microprocessor architects, led by former DEC Alpha / StrongARM design team members, allowing for a combination of proven design execution and MIPS (NASDAQ: MIPS) performance technology to achieve high performance, low power dissipation and system integration in its Internet Edge Processor. Alchemy's headquarters are at 7800 Shoal Creek Blvd., Suite 222W, Austin, Texas 78757; or go to www.alchemysemi.com.

About Wind River

Wind River, www.windriver.com, is a worldwide leader in embedded software and services for creating connected smart devices. Wind River provides software development tools, real-time operating systems, and advanced connectivity for use in products throughout the Internet, telecommunications and data communications, digital imaging, digital consumer electronics, networking, medical, computer peripherals, automotive, industrial automation and control, and aerospace/defense markets. Wind River is How Smart Things Think(TM). Founded in 1983, Wind River is headquartered in Alameda, California, with operations in sixteen countries worldwide.

All names, product names, and trade names contained in this press release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respected holders.