RMI Corporation Partners With Atheros to Bring Complete Processing Solutions to PNDs, PMPs and...

RMI Alchemy Platform Targets Dynamic Consumer Electronics Markets With Atheros Industry-Leading Wi-Fi and Hosted GPS Solutions

CUPERTINO, Calif. & TAIPEI, Taiwan -- RMICorporation, a leading provider of High Performance Processor Solutions for Communications Infrastructure, Enterprise

and Media Rich Consumer Applications, today announced a collaboration with Atheros Communications, a leading developer of advanced semiconductor system solutions for wireless and wired communications, to provide complete WLAN and GPS-enabled processing platforms targeting personal navigation devices (PNDs), portable media players (PMPs) and digital entertainment products.

The RMI Alchemy[TM] and Atheros ROCm[R] joint reference design provides a complete platform for product developers to build advanced home and portable consumer electronics products, featuring navigation, audio, video and photo capabilities. The Alchemy Au1250[TM] media processor provides high-performance, processing capability designed to support a new generation of multimedia, full-featured consumer devices.

Atheros' AR6000 family of ROCm[R] for mobile wireless LAN devices provides platform advantages by delivering enterprise-class throughput, exceptional range and low-power Wi-Fi for mobile applications to support Internet connectivity and music and video downloads. For devices like PNDs and PMPs requiring advanced navigation functions, Atheros' hosted, single-chip, AR1511 receiver and its companion ORION 3.0 software deliver assisted GPS to enable fast fix times, and industry-leading receiver sensitivity to track satellite signals in even the most challenging environments. To simplify the product design process, Atheros' GPS solutions support Windows[R] Mobile CE with simple installation through the company's Install n Go[TM] software.

"The winning combination of RMI's Alchemy-based[TM] media processors with Atheros ROCm single-chip Wi-Fi and GPS solutions brings ease-of-use, in a comprehensive, turnkey platform, which reduces design times to meet the rapidly evolving needs of today's consumers," said Greg Winner, general manager of Atheros' GPS business unit. "Atheros is pleased to collaborate with RMI to develop high-performance solutions to support advanced features and extend battery life in compelling, next-generation devices."

"RMI is pleased to be working with Atheros to offer such a compelling solution to our customers," said Mike Wodopian, vice president and general manager, Media Processor Solutions, RMI. "Atheros' innovative technology and ability to offer a rich product portfolio enables us to concentrate on building high-performance processors with extremely low power while delivering tightly-coupled, comprehensive Wi-Fi and GPS solutions that our customers demand."

The RMI Alchemy Au1200TM Processor Family addresses the needs of consumer media applications by offering a high-performance, low-power processor capable of delivering a rich multi-media experience to end users at under a 1/2 watt (450mW). The Au1200 Processor Family consists of the Au1200, the Au1210 and the Au1250 media processors targeted for full-featured Portable Media Players, Personal Navigation Devices (PND) and MobileTV. The RMI Alchemy product line provides system designers an easy-to-use, simple solution to create full-featured consumer solutions with greatly reduced design cycle times.

RMI[R] products offer advanced performance and integration, and are used by system and original equipment manufacturers to address the Digital Consumer, Wireless, Networking and Security markets. The company's XLR[TM], XLS[TM], and Alchemy[TM] processor families are based on an innovative MIPS[R]-compatible architecture creating highly-integrated designs incorporating advanced internal architectures and built on leading-edge silicon process technologies.

About RMI Corporation

RMI Corporation is a fabless semiconductor company providing highly integrated, feature-rich products ranging from power-optimized Super System-on-a-Chip (SuperSOC[TM]) solutions to High-Performance Processors for the infrastructure, enterprise, and consumer media markets. RMI offers a broad platform of advanced MIPS[R]-compatible processor solutions with both 32/64-bit architectures supporting frequencies from 300MHz to 1.2 GHz. RMI is headquartered in Cupertino, CA with branch and subsidiary operations in Texas, United Kingdom, India, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and China. More information about RMI can be found on the company's website at http://www.RMICorp.com.

(c) Copyright 2008 RMI Corporation. All rights reserved. RMI, the RMI logo, RMI Alchemy, Alchemy, Alchemy-based, Advanced Processor Solutions, Au1200, Au1250, XLR, XLS, SuperSOC and the other trademarks named on the RMI website are trademarks of RMI Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.