Fukuoka, Japan – January 28, 2010 – NSCore, Inc., a leading provider of non-volatile, one-time programmable memory announced today that its PermSRAMÒ non-volatile memory intellectual property (IP) has been validated as “Ready for IBM Technology” for IBM’s 0.18 micron CMOS foundry technology.

The “Ready for IBM Technology” program is designed to help customers speed time to market, reduce development risk and lower development costs. The “Ready for IBM Technology” designation, as used by NSCore, signifies that PermSRAM has been tested and validated in silicon and has met compatibility and integration specifications established by IBM for 0.18 micron CMOS foundry process technologies.

“Achieving the ‘Ready for IBM Technology’ mark is a significant milestone and one that benefits both NSCore and IBM customers,” said Tada Horiuchi, President and CEO of NSCore. “IC designers looking to enhance and differentiate their mixed signal and digital IC’s in IBM’s 0.18 micron CMOS process now have access to qualified high yielding, reliable non-volatile memory.”

NSCore will be exhibiting at DesignCon at the Santa Clara Convention Center on February 2-3 (http://www.designcon.com/2010/attendees/pages/nscore.asp). Customers interested in learning more about NSCore and its “Ready for IBM Technology” NVM IP are encouraged to visit the company’s booth #321.

About PermSRAM® and NSCore, Inc.

Founded in 2004, NSCore develops, licenses, and markets innovative non-volatile memory technologies for SoC semiconductors which are implemented on high volume, standard CMOS processes without extra steps, masks or process modifications. NSCore’s patented PermSRAM® offers the optimum combination of extremely small macro size, fast READ/WRITE, and is fully testable. PermSRAM’s excellent process portability, high yield, and automotive level reliability give SoC design engineers the flexibility and confidence to conceive and build cost effective products with very short turn-around time. For more information, please visit www.nscore.com.

KAWASAKI, Japan, DUESSELDORF, Germany, SANTA CLARA (U.S.A.), January 28, 2010–NEC Electronics (TSE:6723) today announced its new super-resolution application-specific standard product (ASSP), the uPD9281GC. The ASSP addresses the dramatic divergence between yesterday’s image resolution and the high resolution of today’s audio-visual (AV) display systems, and supports the low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS) interface, a technology extensively adopted in broad ranges of flat panel displays, projectors for digital TVs (DTVs) and PC monitors.

For recent models of flat panel displays and projectors, higher screen resolution is essential to the specification of products with premium display quality. However, the rapid development of today’s high-performance digital audio/visual (AV) devices has left consumers with the challenge of how to view low-resolution images on their new high-definition (HD) electronic products. For example, 1920 x 1080-pixel HD televisions have six times the resolution compared to the 720 x 480-pixel standard definition (SD) image data, which results in blurred images. Although many image-enhancement technologies have been developed to process low-resolution image data into full HD images, designers, using traditional solutions, require large-capacity external memory devices and high-performance computational engines, as well as facing other challenges, to achieve real-time processing for vivid moving images.

To solve these problems, NEC Electronics and NEC Central Research Laboratories jointly developed a new technology that enables very high-resolution processing with just one frame of image data. NEC Electronics has been releasing super-resolution ASSPs based on this new technology since November 2008. The company has named its super-resolution ASSP lineup the “NeoClearResolution™ (Bikaizo™)” and now offers the new µPD9281GC NeoClearResolution ASSP with LVDS interface. 

Three key features of the µPD9281GC NeoClearResolution ASSP are:

1. Supports the LVDS flat panel display interface

With -an integrated LVDS-interface (Note) circuit that connects the flat panel display and the image data processing circuits, NEC Electronics’ new ASSP reduces external components and saves space on system boards.

2. Reduces “mosquito noise” caused by JPEG and MPEG compressed images

The new ASSP integrates a noise-reduction feature to reduce mosquito noise unique to compressed video images of MPEG2, widely used for digital media such as DVDs and Blu-ray discs, and H.264 used for viewing digital satellite broadcasting. The new ASSP also reduces mosquito noise for JPEG compressed images used especially for digital still cameras. Reducing the mosquito noise enables processing of images that are more natural.

3. Can select area to apply super-resolution

Designers can select up to four specific sections of an image and apply NEC Electronics’ super-resolution technology to enhance image quality of those sections. This feature enables the application of the super-resolution technology, such as applying the technology onto a specific area of the picture-in-picture display, which is useful for picture-enhancement demonstrations at consumer electronic stores.

NEC Electronics expects this new ASSP will enable better archiving of valuable images in display devices, and plans to continue developing super-resolution system-on-chips (SoCs) using the NEC Electronics Neo Clear Resolution (Bikaizo) brand name.

More information about NEC Electronics super-resolution products can be found at http://www.necel.com/superresolution/en/products/d9281gc.html. A video of the super-resolution technology can be seen at http://www.necel.com/video/en/vol_0012/vol_0012.html.
Main specifications of NEC Electronics’ µPD9281GC super-resolution ASSP can be found in the attachment.

Availability

Samples of NEC Electronics’ µPD9281GC super-resolution ASSP are available now. Mass production is scheduled to begin in February 2010, starting at 100,000 units per month. Pricing and availability are subject to change without notice.

(Note) LVDS (Low Voltage Differential Signaling):

A digital interface that uses a differential data-transmission scheme widely adopted in LCD panels and flat panels.

About NEC Electronics Corporation

NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) specializes in semiconductor products encompassing advanced technology solutions for the high-end computing and broadband networking markets; system solutions for the mobile handset, PC peripheral, automotive and digital consumer markets; and multi-market solutions for a wide range of customer applications. NEC Electronics Corporation has subsidiaries worldwide including NEC Electronics America, Inc. (www.am.necel.com) and NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH (www.eu.necel.com). More information about NEC Electronics worldwide can be found at www.necel.com.