Oki Electric Develops World's Smallest ARM Microcontrollers

[photo] ML67Q4060 series

Tokyo, Japan, March 3, 2005 -- Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TSE: 6703) today announced it has developed the world's smallest ARM® microcontroller, ML67Q4060 series by using Wafer level Chip Size Package (W-CSP). The company also launched the ML67Q4050 series with expanded specs to connect with external memories. Starting sample shipment from March 2005 and volume shipment in June 2005, Oki aims to ship 400 thousand chips per month for the two chips combined.

"ARM microcontrollers are used in various mobile handsets and mobile terminals worldwide because of its sophisticated features, low power consumption and high code efficiency. We target the personal and mobile market including high function remote controls, wireless headsets, digital home appliances, card-reader markets for this product," said Akira Kamo, President of the Silicon Solutions Company at Oki Electric. "We will continue to develop LSI products for the personal and mobile market by utilizing our strengths in small size packaging, low power consumption and ARM CPUs."

The new series is a 32-bit general-purpose single chip microcontroller using ARM7 TDMI® as the core, which was developed on µPLAT®-7B, Oki's platform to develop system LSIs. It can be used for battery-based applications utilizing its various options for low power consumption mode. Because it is the smallest ARM microcontroller chip in the world using W-CSP technology, the ML67Q4060 series suits applications with limited packaging space such as highly sophisticated multifunction remote controls and wireless headsets.

By adding a security function to the chip, Oki achieved to prevent programs and data on the flash ROM to be stolen from a third party, which is the first for Oki's ARM core general-purpose system LSIs. This security function prevents programs and data to be read by making JTAG interface unusable with specific operations, which makes it best used for card readers with security information and meters with billing information.

Oki's ML67Q4060 and ML67Q4050 series will be exhibited at the Embedded Systems Conference 2005 San Francisco from March 8th to 10th, 2005. (At Oki's booth in #810)

About Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.

Founded more than a century ago in 1881, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is Japan's first telecommunications manufacturer, with its headquarter in Tokyo, Japan. With the corporate vision, "Oki, Network Solutions for a Global Society," Oki Electric provides top-quality products, technologies and solutions to its customers through its telecommunications systems, information systems and electronic devices segments. All three segments are integrated into one effective organization that functions as a collective force to create exciting new products and technologies, including information and telecom converged solutions. Through its business activities, Oki Electric satisfies a spectrum of customer needs in various markets. Visit Oki's global web site at http://www.oki.com/.

Notes:

µPLAT is a registered trademark of Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. in Japan, Germany and the UK.
ARM is a registered trademark of ARM Limited. ARM946E is a trademark of ARM Limited. Any other trademarks or trade names are the property of their respective owners. "ARM" is used to represent ARM Holdings plc (LSE: ARM and Nasdaq: ARMHY); its operating company ARM Limited; and the regional subsidiaries ARM INC.; ARM KK; ARM Korea Ltd.; ARM Taiwan; ARM France SAS; ARM Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.; and ARM Belgium N.V.
Names of companies and products are trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies.

[Reference] Specs for ML67Q4060 series

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