Press Release

*****For immediate use August 24th, 2000

NEC Develops World's First Low Power Memory Specified for Mobile Applications

"µPD4616112"

TOKYO August 24^th, 2000 - NEC Corporation (NEC) (NASDAQ: NIPNY) (FTSE: 6701q.l) has developed the world's first low power consumption random access memory (RAM) device specifically targeting mobile applications, such as cell phones and other portable terminals. The 16 megabit (Mb) "µPD4616112" device provides full function and pin compatibility with conventional low power static RAM (SRAM) devices.

The µPD4616112 is expected to begin sampling from October 2000 and then to enter volume production from March 2001 at a rate of 1m units per month.

The new mobile specified memory utilizes DRAM cells organized so that they are automatically refreshed on-chip and do not require off-chip refresh control, enabling the new memory device to easily replace low power SRAM devices and offer greater functionality. These design innovations, including an optimized refresh array and power circuitry, enable a standby dissipation of 100microamps (uA) and a "Power Down" mode with standby dissipation of 10uA.

Offered in a 1Mb word x 16-bit organization, the mobile specified 16Mb RAM is fully pin-compatible with the ball size and ball layout of 48-pin flip ball grid array (FBGA) 16-bit I/O low power SRAM devices. By using NEC's high-density DRAM process technology and cells, the new device is able to offer higher memory density in a miniaturized package only 21.8mm square at low cost. By comparison, an SRAM device in the same 16Mb density using a conventional six-transistor cell structure, would suffer an unviable penalty in die size.

With cellular and personal handyphone system (PHS) mobile phones beginning to offer Internet connectivity together with larger, color displays and greater audio-visual capabilities, a greater array of services to utilize these features is being offered. This is creating increased demands for higher density RAM in phones and terminals at lower cost. While synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) offers both the memory density and speed required, the power dissipation of these devices in standby mode is too large for practical application in mobile telephones.

An alternative approach, however, has been to develop higher density low power SRAM, currently in widespread use in mobile phones, and NEC currently offers an 8Mb SRAM device. Customers, however, are calling for even greater density devices but this is difficult to achieve with a low power SRAM design because the large six transistor cell structure of this type of memory, creates die sizes that are impractical.

NEC therefore developed the µPD4616112 16Mb mobile specified RAM device announced today, to meet these calls from the market. The company is also developing devices in 32, 64 and 128Mb densities, as well as stacked multi chip packages (S-MCP) that combine the new µPD4616112 device with flash memory for future expansion of the product line in anticipation of growing customer needs.

About NEC Corporation

NEC Corporation (NASDAQ: NIPNY) (FTSE: 6701q.l) is a leading provider of Internet solutions, dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of its customers in the key computer, network and electron device fields through its three market-focused in-house companies: NEC Solutions, NEC Networks and NEC Electron Devices. NEC Corporation, with its in-house companies, employs more than 150,000 people worldwide and saw net sales of 4,991 billion Yen (approx. US$48 billion) in fiscal year 1999-2000. For further information, please visit the NEC home page at: http://www.nec-global.com

For Main specifications of the µPD4616112, please see the attached sheet.

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Media Contacts:

NEC Corporation
Aston Bridgman
Corporate Communications Division
TEL:   +81-(0)3-3798-6511
E-mail:Aston_Bridgman@HO-PRD.ccgw.nec.co.jp