MontaVista and Renesas Team for Mobile Phones

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Patricia Colby writes

“MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition Adds Support for Renesas Technologys SH-Mobile High-Performance Processor. Combination Will Accelerate Integrated Solutions for Next-Generation Mobile Phones.

TOKYO and SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 24, 2003 MontaVista Software Inc., the company powering the embedded revolution, and Renesas Technology Corp., the new joint-venture semiconductor company established earlier this year by Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501, NYSE: HIT) and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TSE:6503), today announced that MontaVista® Linux® Consumer Electronics Edition (CEE) will support Renesas Technologys SH-Mobile platform, a multimedia application processor for advanced mobile phones. Initially, MontaVista Software and Renesas Technology will collaborate to provide OEMs with Linux-based integrated solutions for next-generation mobile applications running on the SH-Mobile-V processor. At the invitation of Renesas Technology, MontaVista Software has also joined the Renesas Technology-sponsored SH-Mobile Consortium, a development community established to help proliferate the rapid deployment of SH-Mobile processors.

The mobile phone market has been rapidly gravitating toward Linux away from proprietary platforms in key markets worldwide. This is especially true in Japan and China, two of the largest and fastest growing markets for mobile devices, said Ikuya Kawasaki, department manager of SOC Design Dept.6, SOC Div., MCU&SOC Business Unit, Renesas Technology. With this partnership, MontaVista and Renesas will leverage their individual strengths to enable the development of sophisticated application platforms for mobile phones.

As mobile phones rapidly evolve into powerful, customizable wireless data terminals, phone manufacturers need a tightly integrated combination of a flexible, modern operating system and rich, tailored hardware platforms, said Scott Hedrick, senior product marketing manager, MontaVista Software. Together, our two companies can offer optimized platforms for the mobile phone market to accelerate the deployment of terminals combining advanced features and great user experiences.

MontaVista Software and Renesas Technology will collaborate to highly tune the combination of CEE and SH-Mobile to address the growing power management requirements of advanced mobile phones.

MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition 3.0 (CEE) is the first commercial-quality Linux operating system and cross-development environment specifically designed for consumer electronics devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, digital televisions, set-top boxes, automotive telematics and portable media players.

SH-Mobile boasts a proven record in the rapidly evolving mobile phone market, and is widely deployed in Japan, Asia, and Europe, building a reputation in value as an application processor. SH-Mobile is one of the leading application processors specifically designed for 2G and 3G mobile phone market segments.

About Renesas Technologys SH-Mobile

Renesas Technology s SH-Mobile is a flexible application accelerator that provides multimedia support for next-generation cellular phone communications. Unlike a traditional baseband CPU method that uses a single CPU to manage both signal and application processing, the SH-Mobile design approach uses a dual CPU architecture that dedicates one CPU to application execution in order to maximize communication performance. Built on Renesas Technologys popular SuperH 32-bit RISC superscalar architecture, SH-Mobile devices offer compelling functionality such as the JPEG, MP3, acoustic echo canceller, AMR codec, MPEG4 encode/decode and Java Virtual Machine capabilities that are essential for supporting the high-end multimedia applications of next generation mobile phones. For more information about SH-Mobile, please visit: http://www.renesas.com/eng/products/mpumcu/shmobil e/index.html

About MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition

MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition 3.0 enhances Linux with dynamic power management, rich consumer-focused networking support and consumer-grade reliability. It is targeted at mobile, home and automotive markets. CEE is tailored to the demands of highly constrained devices, which require low power consumption, memory size and short boot and resume times. CEE 3.0 incorporates file system enhancements and new tools to measure performance, system timing and memory size. MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition supports XIP (eXecute In Place) of the kernel and applications as well as streaming media optimizations. For more information, please visit http://www.mvista.com/cee/.

Availability

CEE with support for the new Renesas Technologys SH-Mobile-V application processors will be available in the first quarter of 2004. It is offered as a product subscription, providing customers with the MontaVista Linux kernel, utilities, development tools, software updates, deployment components, access to the MontaVista Zone (customer resource portal), comprehensive technical support and hands-on Linux training classes.

About SH-Mobile Consortium

SH-Mobile Consortium membership is comprised of LSI, IP providers, system integrators, and software providers, all collaborating to create a unique mobile phone solution. The aim of consortium is to provide support for hardware, software, and mobile phone terminal developers, to support the growing SH-Mobile ecosystem. For more information, visit
http://www.renesas.com/eng/products/mpumcu/shmobil e/consortium/index.html.

About Renesas Technology Corp.

Renesas Technology Corp. designs and manufactures highly integrated semiconductor system solutions for mobile, automotive and PC/AV markets. Established on April 1, 2003 as a joint venture between Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501, NYSE:HIT) and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TSE:6503) and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Renesas Technology is one of the largest semiconductor companies in the world and world leading microcontroller supplier globally. Besides microcontrollers, Renesas Technology offers system-on-chip devices, Smart Card ICs, mixed-signal products, flash memories, SRAMs and more. www.renesas.com

About MontaVista Software

MontaVista Software is a leading global supplier of systems software for intelligent connected devices and associated infrastructure. MontaVista powers the embedded revolution by providing GNU/Linux-based open-source software solutions. Founded in 1999 by real-time operating system (RTOS) pioneer James Ready, MontaVista offers a family of products under the MontaVista Linux umbrella that address broad-based software developer needs encompassing applications ranging from communications infrastructure to consumer electronics. Multiple editions of MontaVista Linux are available including Professional, Consumer Electronics and Carrier Grade, along with complementary technology products providing powerful Java and graphics development capabilities.

Headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley, in Sunnyvale, Calif., MontaVista Software is a privately held company funded by leading investors such as Alloy Ventures, US Venture Partners, RRE Ventures, WR Hambrecht + Co., IBM, Intel Capital, Sony, Panasonic (Matsushita), Toshiba America and Yamaha Corporation. For more information about MontaVista Software, please visit http://www.mvista.com.

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. MontaVista is a registered trademark of MontaVista Software, Inc. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners.

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Contacts:

MontaVista Software

Joe Samagond,
Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications,
MontaVista Software Inc.,
Phone (408) 328-9234,
E-mail: jsamagond@mvista.com

Patricia Colby,
PR Strategy and Business Development,
Pacifico Inc. ,
Phone (408) 293-8600 ext. 340,
E-mail: pcolby@pacifico.com

Renesas Technology Corp.

Japan : Renesas Technology Corp.,
Motokazu Isozaki,
+81-3-6250-5555, isozaki.motokazu@renesas.com

US: Renesas Technology America, Inc.,
Akiko Ishiyama,
+1-408-382-7407, akiko.ishiyama@renesas.com

Europe: Renesas Technology Europe Ltd.,
Jonathan Colbourne,
+44-1628-585163 , jonathan.colbourne@renesas.com

Singapore: Renesas Technology Singapore Pte. Ltd.,
Atsuhiko Kitamura,
+65-6213-0225, atushiko.kitamura@renesas.com

Hong Kong & China: Renesas Technology, Hong Kong Ltd.,
Silkie Lau,
+852-2265-6611, silkie.lau@renesas.com

Taiwan: Renesas Technology Taiwan Ltd.,
Lili Wu,
+886-2-3518-3391, lili.wu@renesas.com”