New MIPI Alliance Will Encompass Broad Range of Industry
Leaders to Accelerate Adoption of Application-Rich Mobile Products
- MIPI Alliance is a new entity created by ARM, Nokia, ST and TI
that will define an open standard for mobile processor interfaces.
- MIPI Alliance is an evolution of the OMAPI (SM) standard created
by ST and TI.
- MIPI Alliance is encouraging other companies in the mobile industry
to join and promote open standards for processor interfaces.
July 29, 2003 - The Mobile Industry Processor Interface
(MIPI) Alliance, a new industry initiative that will define and promote
open standards for interfaces to mobile application processors, was
announced today by founding members ARM, [(LSE:ARM) (Nasdaq:ARMHY)],
Nokia (NYSE: NOK), STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) and Texas Instruments
Incorporated [(NYSE:TXN) (TI)].
The MIPI Alliance is a response to the broad interest in the OMAPI (SM)
standard launched by ST and TI in December 2002.
OMAPI was formed by TI and ST to standardize interfaces for mobile application
processors. The response to this initiative was very strong and indicated
the need for a more representative formal industry organization. As
a result, the new MIPI Alliance has been established as an incorporated
not-for-profit entity that will include a wide range of member companies
with the common goal of defining and promoting open, standard specifications
for application processor interfaces. By establishing consistency in
application processor interfaces, the alliance expects to ease implementation
and design of hardware and software, promoting reuse and compatibility
in mobile devices to accelerate time-to-market.
"Mobile device users and wireless carriers are demanding a rapidly changing
set of features and functions," said Allen Leibovitch, IDC's Wireless
Semiconductor Research Manager. "Standards like the MIPI Alliance can
allow mobile device manufacturers and their semiconductor and software
providers to more easily combine their best components and features
and bring compelling products to market in a shorter time."
The MIPI Alliance is intended to complement existing standards bodies
such as the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) and 3GPP. While these organizations
focus on services and air interfaces, respectively, the MIPI Alliance
is focused on microprocessors, peripherals and software interfaces.
The MIPI Alliance is actively recruiting member companies such as handset
manufacturers, semiconductor companies, hardware peripheral manufacturers,
operating system (OS) vendors, middleware vendors and software application
developers to help define and promote the adoption of the new standard.
As part of the MIPI Alliance, 10 working groups will be established
to develop specifications in key areas such as camera and display interface,
software abstraction, communications interface and system control.
The MIPI Alliance is structured to provide multiple levels of membership,
in which benefits are proportional to contributions. Basic levels of
membership enable use of specifications, while other levels of membership
enable participation in working groups to define specifications. The
MIPI Alliance expects to announce new members in the third quarter of
2003. More information including membership details on the MIPI Alliance
is on http://www.mipi.org.
Quotes from Founding Members
"By joining this new industry association, ARM will enable its global
Partners to become involved at multiple levels of membership and in
the working groups. The MIPI Alliance goals will enable the faster adoption
of smart phones, reducing the barriers that exist today through simplifying
the supply chain for mobile terminals," said Mike Inglis, executive
vice president of marketing at ARM. "ARM will upgrade its PrimeXsys™
Platform to be compliant with the MIPI standards enabling semiconductor
Partners to quickly develop MIPI-compliant application processors."
"We see the MIPI Alliance as an excellent forum to speed up development
and time to market for mobile multimedia devices by defining open standards
for application interfaces," said Jari Pasanen, Vice President, Nokia
Mobile Phones. "This means that Nokia, and other hardware manufacturers,
can deploy interoperable building blocks faster and at a lower cost."
"We believe that the MIPI Alliance will drive growth in mobile multimedia
by creating an open standard for application processor interfaces,"
said Guy Lauvergeon, Group VP and General Manager of STMicroelectronics'
Multimedia Platform Unit. "These open hardware and software interfaces
will reduce the development time of end products based on future MIPI
compliant application processors like ST's Nomadik family, enable widespread
software reuse and foster proliferation of standard components."
"In order to facilitate the success of the mobile services market,
industry leaders must work together to establish open standards and
specifications," said Alain Mutricy, TI Vice President and WW OMAP General
Manager. "TI will make its OMAP™ application processors compliant with
the MIPI standard and work with the other members of the MIPI Alliance
to bring mobile services to market more quickly while growing the market
for the entire mobile industry value chain."
About ARM
ARM is the industry's leading provider of 16/32-bit embedded RISC microprocessor
solutions. The company licenses its high-performance, low-cost, power-efficient
RISC processors, peripherals and system-on-chip (SoC) designs to leading
international electronics companies. ARM also provides comprehensive
support required in developing a complete system. ARM's microprocessor
cores are rapidly becoming a volume RISC standard in such markets as
portable communications, hand-held computing, multimedia digital consumer
and embedded solutions. More information on ARM is available at http://www.arm.com/

About Nokia
Nokia is the world leader in mobile communications. Backed by its experience,
innovation, user-friendliness and secure solutions, the company has
become the leading supplier of mobile phones and a leading supplier
of mobile, fixed and IP networks. By adding mobility to the Internet,
Nokia creates new opportunities for companies and further enriches the
daily lives of people. Nokia is a broadly held company with listings
on six major exchanges. More information on Nokia is available at www.nokia.com.
About STMicroelectronics
STMicroelectronics is a global leader in developing and delivering semiconductor
solutions across the spectrum of microelectronics applications. An unrivalled
combination of silicon and system expertise, manufacturing strength,
Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio and strategic partners positions
the Company at the forefront of System-on-Chip (SoC) technology and
its products play a key role in enabling today's convergence markets.
The Company's shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, on Euronext
Paris and on the Milan Stock Exchange. In 2002, the Company's net revenues
were $6.32 billion and net earnings were $429.4 million. Further information
on ST can be found at http://www.st.com.

About Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP and analog technologies
to meet our customers' real world signal processing requirements. In
addition to Semiconductor, the company's businesses include Sensors
& Controls, and Educational & Productivity Solutions. TI is headquartered
in Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing, design or sales operations
in more than 25 countries.
Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the
symbol TXN. More information is located on the World Wide Web at http://www.ti.com.
Trademarks
All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective
owners.
ARM is a registered trademark of ARM Limited. All other brands or product
names are the property of their respective holders. "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; and ARM Consulting (Shanghai)
Co. Ltd.
Safe Harbor Statement Statements contained in this press release regarding
the demand for MIPI technology, the deployment, adoption, or performance
of MIPI compliant products, standard acceptance and other statements
of the various companies management's beliefs, goals and expectations
may be considered "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined
in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and are subject
to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those expressed or implied by these statements. The
following factors and the factors discussed in Texas Instruments' most
recent Form 10-K and in the Forms 20-F for ARM, Nokia and ST could cause
actual results to differ materially from the statements contained in
this press release: the introduction of new and competitive technologies;
changes in customer intentions or preferences; the companies' ability
to meet manufacturing and capacity demands; and other factors affecting
market growth or production. Any intention or obligation to update any
forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after
the date of this press release are disclaimed.
ARM
Media Relations
Michelle Spencer
44-1628-427780
E-mail michelle.spencer@arm.com
Texas Instruments
Media Relations
Kathryn Bengtson
214-480-2046
E-mail: kbengtson@ti.com
Nokia
Media Relations
Keith Nowak
972-894-6182
E-mail: keith.nowak@nokia.com
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