~ SiS, a leader in the new generation of SoC design, hold the SoC Conference with eight partners to display its integrated technology prowess through a live demonstration of its SiS550 Family for IA platform ~

October 4th, Taipei, Taiwan---Silicon Integrated Systems Corp. (SiS), a leading core logics and graphics supplier, today hold the SoC Conference with eight partners to assert its new-generation SoC prowess by a live demonstration of its latest highly integrated chipsets: the SiS550 Family for IA platform. Since the launch of the world's first integrated chipset with its SiS5598 in 1996, SiS has seen astounding sales of over 40 million chipsets. Today, with an even more diversified range of products, the company has further secured its leading position in the area of highly integrated technology by pulling ahead of the competition.

"System-on-Chip (SoC) is an established trend. It is gradually being adopted in the field of technology applications, and we will soon see its exponential growth. SoC applications will run the gamut from PC, information appliances to networking tools," commented Mr. Alex Wu, Director of Integrated Products Division at SiS. "Equipped with the key technologies, such as CPU, core logics, graphics engine and communication chips, plus support from its own fab, SiS fully satisfies the exacting time-to-market demands within this competitive environment, thus providing solutions tailored for different market segments in the shortest time possible."

SiS is aggressively pursuing the new information appliance (IA) market. The recently launched SiS550 Family consists of three highly integrated SoCs, i.e. the SiS550, SiS551 and SiS552. The SiS550 provides customers with the most comprehensive solution by integrating an X86 CPU, high performance Northbridge and Southbridge, and advanced GUI, while also supporting 2D graphics engine, DFP/TV output, DSTN, PCI/USB/IDE, six-channel audio, LPT/CIR controller and Flash ROM interface. SiS550 is designed for single-purpose IA products with relatively simple functionality, such as I-Boxes for Internet access, Web-Pads, Thin-Clients, Pocket PCs and IPCs. Moreover, the SiS551, based on the SiS550, offers extended security mechanisms and memory specifications. In addition to functions supported by the SiS550, the SiS551 integrates SmartCard and Sony Memory Stick controllers, and is compatible with Home Gateway, POS and internet monetary transaction machines. Building on the SiS551, the SiS552 supports powerful slice layer decoding DVD accelerator, Video Input Port and Consumer Digital Audio Interface, providing complete multimedia audio/video applications and enabling the I-DVD, VOD and Home Theater product design.

Offering a complete range of functions, the SiS550 Family meets application requirements for all IA products, thus reducing costs for customers by allowing them to develop almost any product they want in the IA field. Being pin-to-pin compatible, the three SoC products are highly scaleable and expandable in terms of product design, supporting operating systems such as Win98, Linux and WinCE. Furthermore, SiS has developed software packages, including the LinuxBIOS, Bootloader and drivers for Linux and WinCE platforms, thus allowing customers to roll out their products efficiently. Other SiS application software include a DVD player with hardware acceleration, CD/MP3 player, email program, video input program, and web browser (with Flash 5.0 plug-in and Java Virtual Machine).

The SiS550 Family is expected to ship from the SiS fab in November, with the unit price in quantities of 10,000 at US$49, US$55 and US$59 for the SiS550, SiS551 and SiS552 respectively.