28th June, 2004

picoChip announced a strategic partnership with PALTEK Corporation, naming PALTEK as the distributor to extend the company's reach to Japan. Effective immediately, PALTEK will provide dedicated distribution support for all picoChip products into the Japanese market.

PALTEK, a leading silicon and electronic solution supplier in Japan, has over 20 years of experience supporting application specific devices such as programmable logic devices (FPGAs) and application specific standard products (ASSPs) at Japanese OEM customers.

Peter Claydon, co-founder and CEO at picoChip, said, "Japan is the most advanced global market in wireless communications and we need a strong partner to engage there. PALTEK is a perfect match for picoChip. They already have relationships with large OEMs. PALTEK provides a very focused model that is effective in selling communications-based products."

Masanori Kanamori, PALTEK general manager, added; "We are delighted by picoChip's decision to work with us as they expand into Japan. I believe that this move is in recognition of the effectiveness of PALTEK's success with advanced communication chips. picoChip's wireless solution is ideal for the markets and customers that PALTEK operates in."

The picoChip design solution combines a high-performance processor optimised for wireless, with a rich programming environment (using standard ANSI C) and comprehensive system libraries. The company's newest processor is the PC102 delivering 200GIPS and 40GMACs. Reference designs for 802.16 ("WiMAX") are currently available. These provide a speedy, cost-competitive and low risk route to market for fully compliant wireless infrastructure. The system is also perfectly suited to any other advanced wireless technology, including 4G research, military Software Defined Radio (SDR or JTRS), smart antennas, and MIMO.

About picoChip

picoChip, located in Bath, England, is dedicated to providing innovative, flexible wireless solutions to help equipment makers minimize time-to-market, costs, and system power consumption.

At the heart of the company's offering is a scaleable, multi-processor baseband IC that combines the computational density of a dedicated ASIC with the programmability of a traditional high end Digital Signal Processor. The picoChip technology platform includes tools, development boards and reference designs, and proven IP for seamless integration with the radio frequency elements of a base station. Equipment based on picoChip technology will enable telecom operators to remotely re-configure and upgrade their equipment without the high costs of replacing obsolete hardware.

picoChip currently has a development team with a balanced mix of hardware and software engineers of outstanding ability and experience; spanning such diverse fields as communications system design, software development, computer architecture, digital signal processing, RF design, and silicon design.

The company was founded in September 2000 and is backed by both Pond Venture Partners and Atlas Venture.

Winner Best Newcomer & Runner-Up Best Design Solution Electronics Industries Design Awards, 2003

A 2003 Comet Award winner.

About PALTEK

Corporation Since the foundation in 1982, PALTEK Corporation has been providing silicon and software solutions to the Japanese manufacturers. In particular, PALTEK is very strong in providing solutions with Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), Application Specific Standard Products (ASSPs) and other Networking related silicon. Based on the sound business performance, PALTEK made its Initial Public Offering on JASDAQ in 1998. The company is continuously making efforts to contribute to the development of the Network industry by providing the best available hardware and software solutions.