MaxLinear Aligns with UMC for Production of World's Smallest Silicon Tuner Device
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MaxLinear Aligns with UMC for Production of World's Smallest Silicon Tuner Device

HSINCHU, Taiwan & CARLSBAD, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—July 10, 2007— UMC ((NYSE: UMC; TWSE: 2303)) and MaxLinear, Inc., a technology leader at the forefront of developing fully integrated broadband radio frequency (RF) systems-on-a-chip for worldwide television standards, today announced that MaxLinear produced its breakthrough silicon tuner IC, the MxL7001 on UMC's CMOS process. The MxL7001 is the world's smallest silicon tuner produced to date for mobile TV applications such as digital TV (ISDB-T) on cell phones.

"This successful cooperation between UMC and MaxLinear has resulted in a technology that is poised to provide consumers with high-quality digital TV on mobile applications, without interfering with the size, power or performance of end appliances," said Henry Liu, senior vice president of UMC's New Business Development Division. "Our most recent fabrication alliance with MaxLinear follows a series of other similar successful product developments for them, including MaxLinear's Silicon Tuner for fixed and portable television applications that is currently in volume production at UMC."

"We are very excited about our cooperation with UMC as we were able to produce the MxL7001 on CMOS rather than in SiGe, an industry breakthrough," noted Kishore Seendripu, MaxLinear's CEO and president. " UMC has continued to show us over and over again that it has the process technology, the people and the support to help us deliver leading products to market. We are looking forward to continuing our collaboration as we head toward volume production of the MxL7001, and toward cooperating on a myriad of other exciting technology developments."

About the MxL7001

The MxL7001 is a 1.9mm x 1.9mm single-die, digital CMOS IC that is at the foundation of a family of MaxLinear products supporting mobile TV standards worldwide. The device is 1/10th the packaged area of MaxLinear's MxL5000-family ICs (6mm x 6mm) which set the previous record for small size, low power, and superior performance. The MxL5000 ICs will continue to be a part of MaxLinear's standard offering for fixed and portable television tuner applications. Using a standard digital CMOS process technology, the MxL7001 consumes only 65mW of power, reducing battery draw and minimizing heat dissipation -- two very important criteria for mobile TV applications. The highly integrated MxL7001 supports both ISDB-T 1-segment and 3-segment applications. MxL7001 eliminates the need for an external balun, SAW filters and IF amplifier, which reduces both board footprint and BOM costs.

About MaxLinear, Inc.

MaxLinear, Inc. is a rapidly-growing fabless IC company focusing on highly-integrated analog products that incorporate proprietary mixed-signal and radio frequency signal processing techniques in CMOS. The company's technology is ideally suited for a broad range of high-volume consumer electronics applications with the strictest requirements for both power and performance, including personal computers, laptop computers, televisions, and mobile devices. MaxLinear is the first to deliver on the promise of an easy-to-use silicon solution to enable TV on any device. The company is located in Carlsbad, CA with sales offices in Taipei, Taiwan and Seoul, South Korea. www.maxlinear.com.

About UMC

UMC is a leading global semiconductor foundry that manufactures advanced process ICs for applications spanning every major sector of the semiconductor industry. UMC delivers cutting-edge foundry technologies that enable sophisticated system-on-chip (SoC) designs, including volume production 90nm, industry-leading 65nm, and mixed signal/RFCMOS. UMC's 10 wafer manufacturing facilities include two advanced 300mm fabs; Fab 12A in Taiwan and Singapore-based Fab 12i are both in volume production for a variety of customer products. The company employs approximately 13,000 people worldwide and has offices in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Europe, and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at www.umc.com

MaxLinear and the MaxLinear logo are trademarks of MaxLinear, Inc. Other trademarks appearing herein are the property of their respective owners.

Contact:

UMC
KJ Communications
Eileen Elam, 408-927-7753
Email Contact
or
In Taiwan:
UMC
Alex Hinnawi, (886) 2-2700-6999 ext. 6958
or
MaxLinear Inc. Press
The David James Agency LLC
David Rodewald, 805-492-9508
Email Contact
or
MaxLinear Inc. Corporate
Patrick Tierney, 760-692-0711
Director of Marketing
Email Contact