[TI announes the first multimedia applications processor developed with advanced 90 nanometer technology.]

Dallas -- Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) unveiled its newest applications processor for cell phones and mobile devices. The industry's first multimedia applications processor developed using TI's advanced 90 nanometer (nm) process technology, the OMAP1710 device offers up to 40 percent improvement in performance for a variety of mobile applications, while consuming as little as half the power of current TI application processors. The OMAP1710 processor leverages the same software environment as all OMAP chips, enabling application developers and cell phone designers to completely reuse and build upon existing software.

TI's latest OMAP product will enable manufacturers to design sleek and secure mobile handsets with longer battery life. Cell phones that include the OMAP1710 processor will also provide the ideal mix of multimedia features and cost-effectiveness, making them more attractive to the high-volume market for multimedia smartphones.

"We are excited that TI will be the first company to deliver application processors for cell phones that will provide our customers with the performance and power efficiency advantage made possible by advanced 90 nm technology," said Alain Mutricy, TI vice president and worldwide OMAP platform general manager. "The milestone we have achieved with the OMAP1710 processor reinforces our strategy to leverage TI's advanced process technology to provide high-performance, low-power, highly-integrated products for mobile devices."

Utilizing TI's advanced 90 nm process technology, the new processor increases performance by as much as 40 percent for a variety of applications to provide users with a richer mobile experience. The OMAP1710 enjoys improved performance due to higher frequency, larger data and instruction caches and an instruction set-enhanced TI DSP engine that supports multimedia applications such as still images, graphics, full-motion video and audio. TI's aggressive process technology and the re-design of critical system blocks within the processor enabled it to surpass its leadership position in power efficiency by decreasing the power consumption of the OMAP1710 device by as much as 50 percent.

The OMAP1710 processor is built on TI's industry-proven OMAP multi-engine architecture designed to handle a variety of application tasks in parallel, so a user can enjoy several features and services concurrently. This unique multi-engine approach ensures an active multimedia application will not be interrupted or degraded when a separate application, such as an operating system control task, is launched or running simultaneously.

Building on the advantages of the OMAP1610 processor, the OMAP1710 processor provides superior software flexibility, improved multimedia and graphics performance, integrated hardware and software security features, a high-performance camera interface, enhanced peripherals and ultra-low standby power consumption. The OMAP1710 processor is optimized to be paired with TI's TCS wireless chipsets for GSM/GPRS/EDGE, cdma2000 1X and UMTS.

The OMAP1710 processor engines include an ARM TM processor, a TI DSP engine, as well as a range of software and hardware accelerators for video encode and decode, still picture compression, JavaTM and security. TI's unique advanced security hardware provides a secure execution environment that enables TI's customers to deliver more secure wireless devices required by mobile operators. TI's security hardware also offers an ideal platform to address the security threats faced by phone manufacturers and carriers today such as preventing the loading of unauthorized software and protecting sensitive data such as the phone's identity.

The OMAP1710 device is software compatible with previous OMAP application processors, offering easy migration for application developers and handset manufacturers and optimal software flexibility and performance. The device supports advanced mobile operating systems such as Linux(r), Microsoft's Windows MobileTM, Nucleus, Palm OS(r) and Symbian OS. Like all of TI's current OMAP processors, the OMAP1710 is supported by the OMAP Developer Network of leading wireless software application developers and the network of independent OMAP Technology Centers providing development support services. The new OMAP1710 processor ensures easy access to open programming interfaces and tools including a comprehensive evaluation module that will allow OMAP developers and mobile device manufacturers to get a head start on hardware and software development.

The OMAP1710 processor is expected to sample in the first quarter of 2004.

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