BusinessWire
October 17, 2005 06:39 AM US Pacific Timezone

Freescale Taps IPextreme to Accelerate FlexRay Adoption Throughout Automotive Industry With IP Offering; Automotive Network IP Enables Throttle, Braking, Steering and Stability Control By-Wire

CAMPBELL, Calif & MUNICH, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 17, 2005--IPextreme Inc, a supplier of trusted on-chip subsystems, and Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE:FSL) (NYSE:FSL.b) have partnered to deliver Freescale's FlexRay(TM) communication controller core for licensing through IPextreme's Nexus IP Commercialization Program. Freescale, a global leader in automotive semiconductors, brought the first standard FlexRay controller chips to market, and the same design is now available through IPextreme, minimizing risk, cost and time-to-market for those who adopt the standard.

The automotive industry developed the FlexRay protocol as a next generation automotive network with sufficient bandwidth, reliability and real-time response to enable x-by-wire applications such as throttle, braking, steering and stability. The standard has been embraced by many leading automobile manufacturers and Freescale's implementation delivers 10 times the throughput of current controller area network (CAN) solutions. Designers of chassis control, body electronics and powertrain systems can expect to be able to get FlexRay enabled solutions to market more quickly with Freescale's silicon-proven communication controller core. In April 2005, Freescale and Royal Philips Electronics announced that they would be sharing their FlexRay technologies with Philips using the Freescale FlexRay communications controller core.

"Philips is integrating Freescale FlexRay Protocol Engine IP into our line of ARM based automotive microcontrollers. There is no doubt that adopting the IP was faster and more cost effective than designing it from scratch, especially with the ensured interoperability," said Harry Inia, general manager Automotive Business Line and vice president Philips Semiconductors. "We look forward to IPextreme accelerating the adoption of highly reliable FlexRay networks across the global industry by also promoting and supporting this FlexRay IP."

Juergen Weyer, vice president and general manager of Freescale's Transportation & Standard Products Group in Europe, Middle East and Africa said, "We have chosen to deliver our communication controller core through IPextreme because of their global presence and demonstrated ability to package, market and support complex IP subsystems for a number of leading IP vendors. As a core member of the FlexRay consortia, Freescale wants to see the standard widely adopted. We feel seeding the market with our proven communication controller core is an effective way to achieve this."

Warren Savage, CEO, IPextreme commented, "We are pleased to join Freescale in bringing their proven FlexRay technology to market. Freescale engineers have done a great job of designing this highly complex, silicon-proven IP core such that it can be quickly and easily integrated into our customer's applications."

Freescale's FlexRay v2.1 communication controller core is available now from IPextreme, see www.ip-extreme.com/ip/flexray.html.

About IPextreme Inc.

IPextreme helps designers reliably complete ever more complex integrated circuits by providing on-chip subsystems combining hardware and software packaged in a complete, easy-to-use, EDA-tool-neutral format. We consolidate proven designs through a collaborative formal development process focused on rapidly delivering a high quality result. For almost a decade our team has been helping large semiconductor companies to package, commercialize and support their intellectual property (IP), and this forms the basis of our product portfolio. IPextreme has offices in Campbell, California, Munich, Germany and Tokyo, Japan. www.ip-extreme.com.

About Freescale Semiconductor

Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. (NYSE:FSL) (NYSE:FSL.b) is a global leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial, networking and wireless markets. Freescale became a publicly traded company in July 2004 after more than 50 years as part of Motorola, Inc. The company is based in Austin, Texas, and has design, research and development, manufacturing or sales operations in more than 30 countries. Freescale, a member of the S&P 500(R), is one of the world's largest semiconductor companies with 2004 sales of $5.7 billion (USD).

www.freescale.com

IPextreme is pending a registered trademark.

Freescale(TM) and the Freescale logo are trademarks of Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.

All other trademarks are acknowledged.