Samsung Announces New Flash Software for Advanced Multimedia-intensive Mobile Applications

SEOUL, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced development of NAND flash software specially created for high performance multimedia applications. The new software greatly simplifies multimedia system platform design by enabling Samsung’s 16 Gigabit (Gb) NAND flash to be easily adapted to mobile applications with large storage needs, such as portable media players (PMP) and video MP3 players.

The new software, with accompanying transactional file system, supports all of the system performance requirements of Samsung’s 16Gb NAND. Samsung’s 16Gb NAND flash, which has been in mass production since April, programs data in 4KB pages of dual planes, twice as fast as previous generations. Samsung’s new software optimizes the fast data transfer speeds of 16Gb NAND, while protecting against sudden power failures.

“The new 16Gb flash software supports increasingly popular Linux systems and enables chipset designers to reap the full storage and performance advantages of Samsung’s 16Gb NAND,” said Youngjoon Choi, Vice President, NAND flash product planning, memory division, Semiconductor Business, Samsung Electronics. “There will be considerable demand for Samsung’s 16Gb NAND which can offer up to 16 Gigabytes (GBs) of storage in a single consumer electronics (CE) device, enough to hold up to 20 DVD movies.”

The new flash software will be used immediately with a new chipset from Actions Semiconductors – the ATJ213X – a highly-integrated 32-bit RISC, and 24-bit DSP-based system on a chip (SoC). Samsung’s new software will be available to consumer electronics system designers as part of Actions’ support software package for its new chipset, which will be available later this month. Actions Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq:ACTS), one of China's leading fabless semiconductor companies, provides comprehensive mixed-signal, SoC solutions for portable consumer electronics.

“We are pleased that Actions has won the time-to-market race to best serve the marketplace through its rapid and extensive support of Samsung’s 50 nanometer 16Gb NAND flash,” said Nan-Horng Yeh, Chief Executive Officer, Actions Semiconductor.

As Samsung continues to aggressively develop next-generation NAND flash, the new 16Gb NAND support software demonstrates how the company is bolstering its ability to develop advanced software to further boost NAND performance.

About Samsung Electronics America, Inc.

Headquartered in Ridgefield Park, NJ, Samsung Electronics America, Inc. (SEA) markets a broad range of award-winning consumer electronics, information systems, and home appliance products; and oversees Samsung’s North American operations, including Samsung Telecommunications America, LP, Samsung Semiconductor Inc., Samsung Electronics Canada, Inc. and Samsung Electronics Mexico, Inc.

About Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2006 parent company sales of US$63.4 billion and net income of US$8.5 billion. Employing approximately 138,000 people in 124 offices in 56 countries, the company consists of five main business units: Digital Media Business, LCD Business, Semiconductor Business, Telecommunication Network Business, and Digital Appliance Business. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., ranks #5 in the 2006 Consumer Electronics segment of the Fortune Magazine “America’s Most Admired Companies,” and ranks # 20 in the BusinessWeek “The Best Global Brand 100 2006.” Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd. is a top patent holder, ranking second overall in the U.S. in 2006. Please visit www.samsung.com for more information.