KUNMING COMMUNICATION IC CONFERENCE: Focusing on China's 3G/4G Cellular and Next-Generation Smart Card Markets

Kunming, Yu Nan Province, China, August 26, 2003 - The 5th annual China Communication IC Technology and Industry Development Conference recently took place in Kunming, in the Yu Nan Province of China, from August 24th through August 27th.

The hosting and support organizations included the China Institute of Communication, Chinese Institute of Electronics, Datang Microelectronics, China Integrated Circuits magazine, and the Hi-Tech Research and Development program of China VLSI Design.

The smart card market and 3G cellular phone market is growing rapidly in China - the China government has decided to build its own cellular system and set up a China standard such as the TD-SCDMA developed by top Chinese telecom/electronics companies such as Datang Microelectronics and Siemens. The number of cell phones is predicted to be 3 to 10 times the number of the population of China over the next few years. China is already the number one cell phone market, with 226 million cell phones in 2002 and still growing.

According to Yan Xiao Lan, the Dean of Zhejiang University, the China electronic industry is growing at a rate of about 20% per year, with the government focused on the following fields: 1) 32 bit CPUs, 2) OLED, 3) Flash memory and 4) DTV and STB. SoC and the reuse of IP are the key trends for IC design, with a focus towards 0.90um technology and 12 inch wafers. The reuse of IP is a key SoC trend, and IP costs are forecasted to grow to approximately 25% of the total design costs in 2004. Among IP, memory design becomes more and more important, and designs may become memory driven designs in the future, particularly as process technologies shrink below 0.35um. There are approximately 400 IC design houses in China at the moment, and over 50% of them are expected to be working in system or software IP by 2004, focusing on driving products that are higher in performance and function, low in power consumption, and smaller in die size.

For the China smart card market, next-generation smart cards are necessary to meet the high requirements of the Chinese government. Dong Ping Zhu, from the Ministry of Public Security of the PRC, spoke to the need for high data retention and reliability (over 20 to 30 years) for the smart ID cards the government is planning to issue. The cards will contain a personal ID as well as a picture, and will be contactless. The volume is expected to enlarge quickly since government approval has already been reached, beginning with 100 million next year in 2004.

Aplus' President & CEO, Peter Lee, gave a presentation on the second day of the conference on Aplus Flash Technology's non-volatile memory hardware technology solutions for next-generation smart card and 3G cellular phone markets. Aplus' patent pending technology provides a unified, hardware NVM memory IP for applications requiring both Flash and EEPROM capabilities in a cost efficient SOC solution, and is suitable for 1) 3G cellular phone applications, 2) Next-generation Flash + EEPROM smart card applications and 3) Embedded flash applications.

As both an IP provider and IC design company, Aplus currently offers ROM + EEPROM + SRAM, which is suitable for first generation smart cards currently in production. Aplus is also developing its next generation FLASH + EEPROM with its various manufacturing partners worldwide, and offers a 100% memory compatible SRAM with its memory IP. These IP are targeted to best fit the requirements of the next generation smart card and 3G cellular markets.

Other pockets of strong market growth are expected to be seen in chips for Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), Gigabit Ethernet applications, storage area network applications, multimedia processing for cellular phones, enterprise networking, wireless connectivity, and 3G handsets and base stations.

About Aplus Flash Technology:
Aplus Flash Technology, Inc., was founded in 1998 as a fabless design company. Our founders, Peter W. Lee et al. are pioneers and leaders in nonvolatile memory (NVM) technology specializing in embedded NVM memory IP. Our product line includes memory products like ROM, OTP EPROM, NTP and EEPROM, with Flash under way. It also encompasses embedded designs such as ROM, OTP, NTP, EEPROM, low-density Flash + EEPROM and MaxFlash embedded. Aplus' embedded licensees include leading global semiconductor companies and our foundry connections span worldwide in countries including Taiwan, Korea and China. For more information, please visit: www.aplusflash.com.