Infineon and Alchemy Semiconductor Announce Licensing Agreement; Bringing the Powerful CARMEL DSP Architecture to `Internet Edge' System-on-Chip Solutions.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MUNICH, Germany & AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 25, 2000

Infineon Technologies (FSE:IFX)(NYSE:IFX) and Alchemy Semiconductor, Inc. today announced that the companies have concluded a licensing agreement for Infineon's CARMEL(TM) core architecture family. The license provides Alchemy's highly respected engineering design teams with access to a scalable and configurable DSP technology that is particularly well suited for integration into both high performance and low-power designs.

The agreement extends Infineon's program of strategic licensing of its DSP and processor core architectures, which the company provides in both soft and hard macro implementations. Alchemy has licensed fully synthesizable versions of both the CARMEL DSP 10xx and CARMEL DSP 20xx core architectures.

"We are delighted to have Alchemy Semiconductor as a licensee of the CARMEL DSP core. With Alchemy's first product, the company demonstrated its ability to create innovative, high-value solutions with superior performance and power specifications," said Alex Bedarida, vice president of DSP for Infineon Technologies. "In selecting the CARMEL DSP core as a building block, the Alchemy team has adopted a key technology for its next generation designs."

Alchemy Semiconductor, a fabless semiconductor company based in Austin, recently announced its first Internet Edge processor product, the Au1000. Designed for high performance at very low power, the 400 MHz version of the processor operates with less than a half-watt of power. The chip is designed for system applications in products that operate on the outer edge of the Internet network, such as handheld PCs, VoIP telephony devices and networking products like residential gateways, firewalls and routers.

"As Alchemy Semiconductor continues to add value to products targeted at the Internet Edge, the DSP function becomes increasingly necessary. By licensing Infineon's CARMEL DSP core, Alchemy will provide the market leadership performance and quality software tools which will differentiate our customer's products," said Eric Broockman, president and CEO, Alchemy Semiconductor. "Moreover, Alchemy Semiconductor's relationship with Infineon is more of a long-term alliance as we intend to provide technical input and collaboration on future generations of the CARMEL DSP core."

The CARMEL DSP is a programmable, 16-bit, fixed-point DSP core with specific architectural features that make it optimal for high performance, low-power, high-integration designs. The core implements CLIW(TM) (Configurable Long Instruction Word) instructions, which support very efficient execution of DSP functions, while reducing program memory requirements. With the latest member of the family of DSP architectures, Infineon introduced the PowerPlug(TM) module interface, which allows system-on-chip designers to define application-specific execution units to further boost performance, while controlling power consumption.

About Alchemy Semiconductor

Founded in Austin 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. The company's founding team includes several of the most prominent embedded microprocessor architects and developers in the world, allowing for a combination of proven design execution and MIPS performance technology to achieve high performance, low power dissipation and system integration in its Internet Edge Processor(TM). Alchemy's headquarters are at 7800 Shoal Creek Blvd., Suite 222W, Austin, Texas 78757; or go to www.alchemysemi.com.

About Infineon

Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor solutions for applications in the wireless and wired communications markets, for the automotive and industrial sectors, for security systems and chip cards as well as memory products. With a global presence, Infineon operates in the U.S. from San Jose, Calif., in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from Tokyo. In the fiscal year 1999 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 4.24 billion (US$4.51 billion) with about 26,000 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol:IFX). Further information is available at www.infineon.com.

Any statements in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties; actual results may differ from the forward-looking statements. Infineon Technologies undertakes no obligation to publicly release the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Note to Editors: Infineon, the stylized Infineon Technologies design, CLIW, PowerPlug, and CARMEL DSP are trademarks and service marks of Infineon Technologies AG. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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