Freescale Semiconductor Highlights Year of Innovation.

Industry Leadership Broadens with Technological Breakthroughs across Multiple Markets

AUSTIN, Texas -- Within the past two years, Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. has gone from being the freshman of the semiconductor industry to a thriving company acquired in the largest private equity technology buyout in history.

One of the key drivers of the company's growth is the consistent flow of technology breakthroughs. Freescale technology is embedded into products that touch virtually every aspect of people's lives every day around the globe. Through its innovation, Freescale has enabled significant leaps in the automotive, industrial, consumer and mobile communications markets. Listed below are examples of several industry and market innovation "firsts" that Freescale announced in 2006.

Memory - First to announce MRAM commercial magnetic memory devices

MRAM is a revolutionary memory technology that could hasten new classes of electronic products offering dramatic advances in size, cost, power consumption and system performance. MRAM is a fast, non-volatile memory with unlimited endurance - a combination of characteristics not available in any other individual semiconductor memory product. Will Strauss, an analyst with research firm Forward Concepts, called Freescale's announcement "the most significant memory introduction in this decade." MRAM's ability to store data will significantly change how data is used in consumer devices such as cameras, MP3 players and computers.

Packaging - Redefined advanced semiconductor packaging

Freescale announced a proprietary technique called redistributed chip packaging (RCP). It delivers up to a 30 percent reduction in packaged-die area and thickness, addressing some of the limitations associated with previous generations of packaging technologies. The technology is easily adapted for 3G mobile phones and a broad range of consumer, industrial, transportation and networking devices that can benefit from the consolidation of electronic components into a single, miniaturized system.

Consumer - First fully-functional gallium arsenide MOSFET device

Freescale produced the first commercially viable gallium arsenide (GaAs) MOSFET (metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors) device, a transistor that could dramatically improve the performance of chips used in consumer electronics. GaAs MOSFETs can conduct electrons up to 20 times faster than traditional silicon MOSFETs. Freescale's breakthrough enables the development of new classes of power amplifier and low-power, ultra-fast semiconductors that significantly shrink the size and boost the performance of end devices.

Automotive - Integrated FlexRay technology on an automotive microcontroller

An industry first, Freescale's FlexRay technology is now available in Freescale's 32-bit MPC5500 and 16-bit S12 MCU families. FlexRay is a network communications system designed to meet the demand for high data rate networks driven by the increased high-speed electronic content in automobiles.

Industrial - Provides migration flexibility with Freescale Controller Continuum

Freescale was the first to provide 8- to 32-bit compatible architectures with its Controller Continuum that builds on a common set of peripherals and development tools to deliver pin-for-pin compatible microcontrollers. Controller Continuum delivers 32-bit performance with 8-bit ease of use for the ultimate in migration flexibility.

Networking - Introduced first fully programmable quad core DSP

Based on StarCore[R] technology, Freescale's fully programmable quad core DSP offers 10.5 Mbytes of memory in a single package while maintaining a highly competitive cost and power per channel. This industry-leading MSC8144 DSP has the potential to make IP-based connections faster, easier and more reliable and will help tech-savvy consumers have access to high-quality voice, video and data services everywhere they go.

Mobile Communications - i.MX31 powerful and efficient applications processor

The i.MX31 processor is a highly-integrated and innovative multimedia engine that is at the heart of some of the most popular portable media devices. Driving this adoption is Freescale's growing portfolio of high-resolution video codecs, multimedia engineering expertise and Smart Speed[TM] integrated circuit architecture that extracts optimal processor performance while extending battery life. This high-performance, low-power innovation enables consumer electronic manufacturers to bring a sensational video and audio experience, typically reserved for home entertainment systems, to their customers' mobile devices.

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. The privately held company is based in Austin, Texas, and has design, research and development, manufacturing or sales operations in more than 30 countries. Freescale is one of the world's largest semiconductor companies with sales of $6.2 billion (USD) for the previous four quarters. (www.freescale.com)

Reader Inquiry Response:
Freescale Semiconductor
P.O. Box 17927
Denver, CO 80217 USA

Freescale[TM] and the Freescale logo are trademarks of Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. [c] Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. 2006.