SGS-THOMSON and to Jointly Develop the NEXT Generation SuperHTM

December 9, 1997 4:51 PM ET

Tokyo, December 9, 1997 - Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT) and SGS-THOMSON Microelectronics (NYSE:STM) today announced an agreement in principle to join forces and collaborate on the development of next-generation SuperH (Hitachi's SH-5 / SGS-THOMSON's ST50) for consumer electronics and multimedia applications.

The two companies will together develop the new 64-bit SH-5/ST50 series based upon Hitachi's original SuperH architecture and SGS-THOMSON's know-how in 64-bit microprocessors, for interactive set-top boxes (STBs), digital video products, car multimedia systems and other consumer-oriented products. The agreement also allows SGS-THOMSON to have access -- through specific licenses - to Hitachi's SH-3 and SH-4 series.

By combining their efforts, the two companies' goal is to deliver high-performance, low-cost processors to the market more quickly than would have been possible working alone and create an architectural standard for consumer multimedia systems. The architecture from the joint development effort is expected to be disclosed in 1998.

SGS-THOMSON and Hitachi have already achieved considerable success in the embedded and microprocessors market with their own product families. Hitachi's products have been widely adopted for consumer and industrial products such as game consoles, audio and video equipment, auto navigation and personal information devices, while those of SGS-THOMSON are being used extensively in automotive, STB, and global positioning by satellite (GPS) navigation systems.

Speaking on the agreement, Dr. Tsugio Makimoto, Senior Executive Managing Director of Hitachi, said, "Joining Hitachi's RISC technology and SGS-THOMSON's successful consumer technology will definitely create the next generation of 64-bit SH-5/ST50 microprocessor, for multimedia applications. The collaboration will provide more flexibility, more performance and less cost for customers in the nomadic age. We are very pleased to be working closely with SGS-THOMSON. The strengthening of our alliance will also further improve the position of the SuperH as the worlds leading RISC processors. "

Pasquale Pistorio, President and Chief Executive Officer of SGS-THOMSON, said "There is a clear and growing need for very high performance, cost-effective processors for consumer applications and this joint effort will help to meet that demand. By collaborating we aim to establish an industry standard for embedded systems, just as the processor family is the industry standard for PCs. Our customers will further benefit from having a wider range of hardware and software products and a second source. SGS-THOMSON will also benefit as this agreement will help us to maintain our leadership in the digital consumer market."

Both companies have successfully established proprietary processors in the market, Hitachi with its H8, H8S and SuperH series and SGS-THOMSON with its ST6, ST7, ST9, ST10, and ST20 microcontrollers. Both companies have an enormous range of peripherals that can be integrated with their processor cores to offer " " solutions to their customers. The software expertise of the two companies will be used to create a comprehensive range of software development tools for reducing time to market and extensive libraries of application software for product differentiation.

Editors Note About the SuperH RISC architecture The SuperH family of high-performance, low-power RISC microprocessors is used extensively in cost-sensitive personal access applications such as mobile information and communication devices, car navigation systems and digital cameras. The

Page 1/2 SH-3 series includes the leading processors supporting the Windows® CE released last year by Microsoft Corporation. The recently introduced SH-4 series, featuring the industry's highest-performance embedded processor (360 MIPS at 200 MHz), also supports Windows CE. Hitachi continues to expand the series of SuperH microprocessors to meet the diverse needs of customers, and the SuperH architecture already has over 2,000 design wins worldwide.

About the ST6, ST7, ST9, ST10 and ST20 SGS-THOMSON has a range of 8-bit micros (ST6, ST7 and ST9) that are designed for consumer applications such as white goods, monitors and analog set top boxes. The 16-bit ST10 offers high performance embedded cores for applications such as hard disk drives and engine management. The ST20 is a family of 32 bit products for consumer and automotive applications and is used in the digital set top boxes recently announced by BSkyB. Third party software for the ST10 and ST20 products include pSOS from ISI and VxWorks from Windriver Systems.

About Hitachi, Ltd. Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 1996 (ending March 31, 1997) consolidated sales of ¥8,523 billion ($68.7 billion*). The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit its Web site at http://www.hitachi.co.jp.

About SGS-THOMSON Microelectronics SGS-THOMSON Microelectronics is a global independent semiconductor company, with strong European roots, listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:STM) and on the Bourse de Paris. It designs, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs) and discrete devices used in wide variety of microelectronics applications, including telecommunications system, computer system, consumer products and industrial automation and control system. For the year 1996, the company had revenues of $4.12 billion and net earnings of $625 millions. Further information on SGS- THOMSON can be found at http://www.st.com.

* At an exchange rate of 124 yen to the dollar.

SuperH is a trademark of Hitachi, Ltd. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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