NEC Electronics and Link A Media Enter Strategic Partnership To Develop Electronics Solutions for Hard Disk Drives

NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723) and Link A Media Devices Corporation today announced a strategic partnership in the rapidly growing field of next-generation hard disk drives (HDD). According to the terms of the agreement, NEC Electronics and Link A Media will jointly develop a variety of System-on-Chip (SOC) solutions for hard disk drives, based on Link A Media's advanced signal processing and data recovery technologies, for a variety of end-products in the areas of mobile and desktop computing and consumer appliances. Link A Media will market and sell the solutions to HDD OEMs globally. NEC Electronics has acquired a 16.7 percent equity stake in Link A Media Devices. The first product resulting from the joint development is expected to be available by summer 2006.

"We are delighted to partner with NEC Electronics to deliver SOC solutions to the HDD market. NEC Electronics' leading-edge 90nm process, manufacturing excellence, and commitment to our business are paramount to our ability to meet the technology needs and the quality requirements of our HDD OEMs. Together, with our rich IP portfolio, we are committed to delivering segment-specific SOC solutions to serve opportunities in both traditional and emerging HDD market segments," said Dr. Hemant Thapar, Chief Executive Officer, Link A Media Devices Corporation.

"Link A Media's advanced signal processing technologies are first-rate," stated JJ Yamaguchi, executive vice president, NEC Electronics. "The combination of their technologies with NEC Electronics' IP and state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities will enable us to offer customers compelling solutions in hard disk storage."

In recent years, information storage needs have skyrocketed with the increase in portable devices and digital content such as music and video reflected in the growing demand for higher capacity storage across all form factors. According to the reports*: from IDC, a leading provider of global IT search and advice, the number of disk drive shipments is expected to more than double from 305M units in 2004 to over 620M units in 2009, with the highest growth expected in mobile and consumer applications.

To address this growing market, NEC Electronics and Link A Media are collaborating on SOC solutions based on Link A Media's advanced Read Channel, Error Correction Coding (ECC), and Data Recovery technologies and NEC Electronics' 90nm process and standard IP blocks. These technologies enable increased noise immunity in data detection, higher format efficiency, and improved drive yields along with lowered power consumption. By combining these SOC technologies with the emerging perpendicular recording technology, HDD OEM's can significantly increase the areal densities needed to meet the aggressive storage capacity growth requirements.

Through this strategic partnership, NEC Electronics and Link A Media aim to offer superior products to meet the demands of the hard disk drive market, and continue to develop innovative solutions to meet the growing needs of this market.

About Link A Media

Link A Media Devices was founded in March 2004 with a vision to develop integrated system solutions on a chip for linking digital information within and across different media devices. Link A Media is focused on becoming a leading developer and supplier of silicon system solutions, integrating mixed-signal high performance physical layer interfaces, processor-based data transport, and ultra high-bandwidth memory management functions in a single module. Its flagship products are targeted for the hard disk drive OEMs. For more information, please visit www.link-a-media.com

About Hemant Thapar, Ph.D. (CEO, Link A Media)

Hemant Thapar has served as CEO since the company was founded in March 2004. Previously, he held various positions at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Holmdel (1979-84) and at IBM Corporation, San Jose (1984-94). He was CEO of DataPath Systems from April 1994 until July 2000 when it merged with LSI Logic Corporation, where he was most recently a Senior Vice President. He is also affiliated with the School of Engineering at Santa Clara University since 1984. Dr. Thapar is co-recipient of three best paper awards for his work on high-speed data transmission and high-density data storage. He holds a Ph. D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and was elected a Fellow of the IEEE for his contributions to the theory and practice of technologies for data storage and transmission.

About NEC Electronics

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 handsets, PC peripherals, automotive and digital consumer markets, and multi-market solutions for a wide range of customer applications. NEC Electronics Corporation has 26 subsidiaries worldwide including NEC Electronics America, Inc. (www.am.necel.com) and NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH (www.eu.necel.com). For additional information about NEC Electronics worldwide, visit www.necel.com.

* Source, IDC, Worldwide Hard Disk Drive 2005-2009 Forecast: The Growth Is Sustainable, but the Industry Is in Transition, Doc# 33432, June 2005.