NEC ELECTRONICS LAUNCHES 'ESPRIT DE K0RE' MICROCONTROLLER DESIGN CONTEST.

NEC Electronics Inc. has announced its 8-bit micro controller design contest that opened for registration on Friday, March 1, 2002. The "Esprit de K0RE" contest invites design engineers to submit an embedded design using NEC's popular uPD78F9418A flash micro controller, a member of NEC's K0S family of 8-bit micro controllers. Qualified applicants will receive a free NEC K0RE System Design Kit to help them create an embedded design that is unique, clever and code efficient. The contest will run for six months, and winners will be selected from 500 qualified designs. The first-place winner will receive an NEC-Mitsubishi 50-inch Plasma Sync flat-panel display, valued at approximately $8,500. The second-place winner will receive an NEC-Mitsubishi 20-inch thin-film transistor (TFT) liquid crystal display (LCD) valued at approximately $2,000. First- and second-place winners have the option of choosing the cash equivalent. All qualified entrants will receive a handheld global positioning system (GPS) upon submitting a complete design.

"The 'Esprit de K0RE' contest was developed to challenge engineers to think creatively while reinforcing the message that NEC's design and development package reduces cost and shortens the overall design cycle," said David Lamar, senior marketing manager of micro controller products, NEC Electronics Inc. "'K0RE' stands for 'K0 Real Easy,' an accurate description for NEC's ease-of-use 8-bit products and design environment."

Qualified applicants receive a development package, complete with an assembler, C compiler, simulator with virtual hardware support, flash programmer and an NEC K0RE9418 target board with a uPD78F9418A 8-bit flash micro controller. During the six-month contest period between March 1 and August 31, 2002, engineers are invited to submit their design, documentation, code and schematics. In October 2002, a judging panel will award prizes to the two best designs. Entries will be judged on creativity, uniqueness and utility as well as the completeness of the submitted design.

The contest is open to legal United States residents who are 18 years or older. Contestants must be involved in design and development of micro controller or microprocessor-based products, such as engineers or other personnel working in manufacturing, design and/or design consultation services. Participants may register online at www.necel.com/K0REcontest or by calling 1-800-366-9782 x5.

According to Gartner, Inc., NEC is the second largest micro controller supplier worldwide in unit volume shipments. NEC's K Series consists of the K0 and K0S families with both general-purpose and LCD controller versions. Both families support a wide selection of peripherals and memory configurations. The K0S family uses fewer peripherals and smaller memory options for more cost-sensitive applications.

NEC Electronics offers a variety of micro controller development tools, including software simulators with virtual hardware support, web-based programming examples and a variety of full-function, low-cost emulators (LCEs).