National Semiconductor Announces Production Availability of its Award Winning WebPAD System-on-a-Chip and Enabling Development and Design Hardware

Speeds production of today’s popular personal access devices

Santa Clara, CA -- 3/22/2001 -- National Semiconductor Corporation (NYSE: NSM) today announced production availability of its Geode™ SC3200 WebPAD™ System-on-a-Chip, along with a software development platform and reference schematic for WebPAD designs.

"The Geode SC3200 enables our net display modules to offer OEM customers fast time-to-market," said Amir Shademan, director of marketing for the Net Displays Group at Philips Components. "The device provided a superior combination of low power and high performance while serving to minimize our system cost through its high level of integration." Philips' S10LP-NG module, consisting of Internet-enabled technology integrated within an LCD panel, is the first to feature National's new Geode SC3200 microprocessor. Announced at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in January of this year, the Philips Net Display Module provides original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with a standard hardware solution for Internet access device development.

Introduced last fall, the Geode SC3200 WebPAD System-on-a-Chip device was recently recognized as the Best Highly Integrated Processor in MicroDesign Resources' (MDR) second annual Analyst's Choice Awards. The device features a 32-bit x86 compatible processor, a TFT video processor, core logic, and a SuperI/O block. In addition, it includes a CCIR-656 video input port to enable cost-effective media streaming acceleration. These features, combined with the device's high-level of integration and low power consumption, simplify the design of today's popular Personal Access Devices (PADs) by reducing component count, the number of traces on the main system board, and the overall system power requirements. Altogether, the Geode SC3200 can significantly lower overall system costs and form factor, while improving time-to-market, making this system-on-a-chip ideal as the core of a PAD.

To help OEMs get into production faster, National has released a software development platform for Geode SC3200 WebPAD designs as well as Geode SC2200 thin client designs. The Geode SP4SC30 enables the user to develop code for a multitude of hardware options, and to do so in a stable and highly observable system. The board facilitates software development by including IDE, CRT, and PCI bus interfaces, and through providing many access points for development and debug of software. It also enables customers to quickly evaluate the array of operating systems supporting the SC3200: BeIA, Linux, NTe, QNX Neutrino, and WinCE 3.0. The SP4SC30, along with power management and wireless communication options, is available with an eight week lead time.

Available now on National's developer's Internet site are reference schematics for systems based on the SC3200. These schematics will enable fast and reliable development of full-featured, small form-factor personal access devices that take advantage of the PAD-specific features of the SC3200.

In May, CoCom Group, a Geode design and manufacturing partner, will release an implementation of these reference schematics in a fully functioning wireless WebPAD appliance with multi-media functionality. Units built from this reference design will be available from Cocom for individual purchase, but will primarily serve as a vehicle for OEMs looking to leverage CoCom's design and manufacturing expertise to quickly enter into the PAD market.

Attendees at CeBIT in Germany this month can see a preview of this device at National's booth in Hall 13, C52, near entrance West 1. Complete ordering information will be available at www.cocomgroup.com.

About National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor is the premier analog company driving the information age. Combining real-world analog and state-of-the-art digital technology, the company is focused on the fast growing markets for wireless handsets; information appliances; information infrastructure; and display, imaging and human interface technologies. With headquarters in Santa Clara, California, National reported sales of $2.1 billion for its last fiscal year and has about 10,500 employees worldwide.