Motorola and Visteon Partner to Develop a PowerPC-Based Powertrain Control Module Which Will be Rolling Off Assembly Lines in New Ford Vehicles.

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 2, 1999--

Design Breakthroughs of the Alliance Led This Integrated System

Solution to Win the Prestigious 1998 "Henry Ford Technology Award"

They're on millions of desktops, they power many of the cellular and network switching infrastructures and, starting this spring, a PowerPC(tm)-based Powertrain Electronic Control Module -- PTEC -- will be accelerating onto the nation's highways with the introduction of the Lincoln LS from Ford Motor Co.

The highly integrated PTEC module is a culmination of a successful and rather unique long-term joint design partnering between Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector and Visteon Automotive Systems.

Visteon's PTEC module is a next-generation Powertrain Control Module (PCM) containing the software and intelligence to monitor and control both the car's engine and transmission systems simultaneously.

Partnership:

When the worldwide No. 1 semiconductor supplier to the automotive market - Motorola - teamed up with Visteon on the product, a success story was bound to follow. The goal was to achieve a long-term system solution that would meet short-term needs and benefit future generations of automobiles. The goal was met, resulting in design breakthroughs, which culminated in a multitude of patents, many of them jointly owned.

"In the highly competitive automotive industry, the continual process improvements needed to stay ahead - not just in technology, but in business as well - fueled the drive for increased partnerships to meet a total systems solutions strategy," said Roger Saillant, vice president and general manger, Powertrain Control Systems Division, Visteon. "The Visteon-Motorola partnering has proven to be a successful implementation of this industry paradigm shift."

Brian F. Wilkie, Motorola's corporate vice president and general manager, Advanced Vehicle Systems Division, Transportation Systems Group, further added, "Having developed such an outstanding relationship with Visteon over the years has been most gratifying. It has helped define an advanced business model and tremendous technological innovations. I think winning the 1998 Henry Ford Technology Award was certainly the `icing on the cake' for all of us at Motorola and Visteon. Ford clearly appreciated the efforts the entire Motorola-Visteon team put into making this project and partnership a success."

Working together, Motorola and Visteon took on the enormous challenge of defining, designing, testing, verifying, and qualifying the systems.

"The team consisted of two tiers: a program tier, including system designers and engineers, and a management tier which provided the strategic direction and the help needed to break down any barriers incurred along the way - a checks and balances type of system," said Kent Gilbert, PTEC product manager at Motorola. He further commented, "We took the relationship beyond the standard partnering arrangement, even to the point of doing joint team building exercises between the companies, further fostering the close relationship and strengthening Motorola's position as a leading Visteon supplier."

Jeff Thibert, PTEC program manager and a member of the Visteon design team agreed. "It was hard work but the rewards reaped from the side-by-side camaraderie, working together to find the best solutions for the various challenges that arose, and the design breakthroughs that both companies realized were well worth the effort," Thibert said. "We even had as many as 150 team members working on the project at one time. That's what I call a concerted effort!"

PTEC Module Features:

The PTEC module is a classic example of Motorola's drive to deliver system solutions to its automotive partners and Visteon's drive to provide leading-edge technology solutions to its customers.

Motorola designed and manufactured more than 75 percent of the semiconductor components for the module. This includes the PowerPC MCU (MPC509), a custom I/O controller, SMARTMOS(tm) chips (for the actuator driver), PTEC Analog Input Chip (PAIC), and IGBTs for ignition drivers.

"Sensor signals are received and processed by the PAIC and I/O chips," explained Rollie Fisher, Visteon Powertrain Control Systems technical specialist and one of the 1998 Henry Ford Technology Award recipients. "These signals are fed into the CPU where control algorithms determine the required system adjustments.

"The system adjustments are made by the CPU commanding the SMARTMOS power drivers and ignition drivers to control the actuators. Diagnostic interfaces and communications with other vehicle systems, for example, the instrument panel, are made through Ford's Standard Communication Protocol (SCP) communications interface," Fisher concluded.

The MPC509 was Motorola's first generation PowerPC MCU designed for the embedded market and was optimized to meet the stringent automotive requirements. This particular version of the PowerPC core not only led to the development of Motorola's MPC800 family of products but it is also the foundation of the MPC555 - the most highly integrated microcontroller Motorola has ever produced, with 6.7 million transistors and 448K of FLASH memory. Continuing to be strategic to the automotive market, the MPC509 core is the basis of several future derivatives of the MPC500 family currently under development.

"Visteon has been a leader in functionally integrated powertrain control modules for 15 years. Motorola and the PTEC chip set have allowed us to introduce new designs meeting customer needs," Thibert said. "The optimum mix of system functions and semiconductor device features enabled control of the transmission and engine by one module. This highly integrated solution means four important things to vehicle manufacturers: improved reliability, improved functionality, increased performance, and overall cost reduction."

Wilkie concluded, "Motorola has been delivering broad-based technologies that are the essential ingredients, or the DigitalDNA(tm), for the automotive market for years. We continue to evolve, as do our customers, to meet the changing market needs. Partnering with our customers at virtually every level of development and implementation of new system solutions has become, and will continue to be, the foundation of the way we do business."

Motorola (NYSE:MOT) Semiconductor Products Sector:

As the world's No. 1 producer of embedded processors, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector offers multiple DigitalDNA solutions which enable its customers in the consumer, networking and computing, transportation, and wireless communications markets, to create new business opportunities. Motorola's worldwide semiconductor sales were $7.3 billion in 1998.

Motorola is a global leader in advanced electronic systems and services. It liberates the power of technology by creating software-enhanced products that provide integrated customer solutions and Internet access via wireless and satellite communications, as well as computing, networking, and automotive electronics. Motorola also provides digital building blocks in the form of embedded semiconductor controls, and systems. Global sales in 1998 were $29.4 billion.

Visteon Automotive Systems:

With a global delivery system consisting of more than 120 technical, manufacturing, and service facilities located in 20 countries around the world, Visteon is leveraging the talents of its 82,000 employees to deliver innovative, consumer-driven automotive solutions to its customers. Visteon's 1998 global sales revenues were $17.8 billion. It is headquartered in Dearborn, Mich.

PowerPC(tm) is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation, used by Motorola under license from IBM. DigitalDNA is a trademark of Motorola.

EDITORIAL NOTE: Photos and graphics will be made available to the media.

READER NOTE: Visit Motorola's web sites: Documentation: http://www.mcu.motsps.com/lit. General auto information: http://www.moto-sps.com/automotive.

Visteon news release and photographs are available on the Visteon media web site at: http://www.media.visteon.com.