Move to benefit European customers in Automotive, Telecom and Industrial sectors

Ratingen, January 18th, 2002--Mitsubishi Electric Corporation announced today that it started production of M16C Flash Microcontrollers at its semiconductor factory in Europe, Mitsubishi Semiconductor Europe GmbH (MSE).

Mitsubishi Electric is a leading world-class 16-BIT Microcontroller manufacturer that offers an extensive line-up of products with a performance range of 3 MIPS to 60 MIPS and beyond. Product features such as very low power consumption, low EMI/EMV and high ROM/FLASH and RAM capacity make Mitsubishi Electric well known for 8/16-BIT as well as 32-BIT Microcontrollers that are especially suitable for Automotive, Telecom and Industrial systems. M16C Flash MCU products are available with various Flash capacities such as 64kB, 128kB and 256kB. M16C products with Flash capacities of up to 512kB and more are under development or planning and will be integrated with special interface functions like CAN for Automotive applications, as well as USB for PC-related system designs.


Microcontroller production capacity of Mitsubishi Electric’s semiconductor factories world-wide is approximately 50 Mpcs/month and will be expanded now by adding the additional capacity of MSE, located in Aachen/Germany. This factory was built 1992 and currently employs approximately 500 people to produce, up until now, mainly SRAM and Flash memories for mobile phones. In order to support the increasing demand of M16C Flash Microcontrollers especially in Europe, Mitsubishi Electric has decided to add M16C production to MSE using its high density CMOS Flash technology for Microcontrollers. The first production test runs have been successfully completed and initial mass production devices will be delivered to customers from the European factory within the second quarter of 2002. The investment and production facility upgrade of Mitsubishi Electric at MSE for the M16C Microcontroller production was completed in the previous 9 months. The production capacity at MSE could reach 50-80 Mpcs/year over the next few years depending on future customer demand requirements.

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About Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
With 80 years of experience in providing reliable, high-quality products to both corporate clients and general consumers all over the world, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (FTSE: 6503q.l) is a recognized world leader in the manufacture, marketing and sales of electrical and electronic equipment used in information processing and communications, space development and satellite communications, consumer electronics, industrial technology, energy, transportation and construction. The company has operations in 34 countries and recorded consolidated group sales of over US$33BN in the year ended March 31, 2001. Additional information on Mitsubishi Electric is available at global.mitsubishielectric.com.


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Mitsubishi Electric Europe B.V.
Semiconductor Business Unit
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D-40880 Ratingen

Telephone +49 (0) 2102-486-0, Fax +49 (0) 2102-486-3670
Internet Website: http://www.mitsubishichips.com