Actions Semiconductor Launches Open Source Platform SoC and Reference Design Platform

S500 and ActDuino S500 target open source platform market for smart devices based on Android® and Linux

ZHUHAI, China, Mar. 31, 2015 – 

Actions Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq: ACTS) ("Actions Semiconductor" or "the Company"), one of China's leading fabless semiconductor companies that provides comprehensive portable multimedia and mobile internet system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions for portable consumer electronics, today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Actions Technology (Zhuhai) ("Actions Technology") released a new open source platform SoC, the S500, along with a reference design platform, the ActDuino S500, targeting the Android and Linux open source platform markets for a wide range of smart connected products, including digital display signage, kiosks, netbooks based on Android, pico projectors, children's educational devices, robot toys, and other differentiated consumer electronics.

The S500 is an open platform quad-core 32-bit SoC featuring a highly integrated design, high-performance computing, low-power consumption, low-cost, and robust peripherals. Based on 28nm process technology, the S500 SoC integrates a quad-core Arm Cortex-A9R4 processor with NEON SIMD co-processor and Imagination PowerVR SGX544 GPU. The S500 SoC provides powerful performance and supports 2K @ 60fps (1920 × 1200) LCD + 1080P HDMI dual-screen output and all standard video decoding playback capabilities. In order to serve the diverse needs of the open source market, the S500 SoC has rich peripheral interfaces, providing customers with convenient expansion needs, and integrates with Multi-USBs, I2C, SPI, UART, I2S, PCM, SPDIF, MIPI DSI / CSI, HDMI, Ethernet and other ports.

The ActDuino S500 open source reference design platform supports the Android 5.0 Lollipop, Linux and Ubuntu operating systems. It includes a hardware reference design schematic and board layout diagram supplemented by abundant tools, documents, and other necessary resources to help Actions Technology's partners quickly introduce new customized solutions in a cost effective way, in addition to creating their own development boards geared toward makers and individual hobbyists.

"Given insatiable consumer demand for smart connected devices and innovative IoT solutions, we expect software developers to be excited by the S500 SoC and ActDuino S500 reference design platform. Utilizing 28nm process technology with an Arm quad-core Cortex-A9 powerful CPU, Imagination PowerVR SGX544 GPU and all standard high definition video decoding capabilities, our partners can accelerate device innovation for distinctive intelligent Android and Linux products using our open source SoC and development platform," said Dr. Zhenyu Zhou, CEO of Actions Semiconductor.

"We are pleased to provide support for the open source intelligent hardware community with the launch of our new SoC and reference design platform, along with our recent partnership with Linaro as a founding member of the 96Boards initiative. The open source community is vital to a healthy ecosystem, and our goal is to ensure all developers have access to the most cost-effective and best technology for the latest 32-bit and 64-bit Arm architecture," Dr. Zhou concluded.

About Actions Technology (Zhuhai)

Actions Technology focuses on solutions for smart handheld and smart home devices. Its main products are tablet, over-the-Top ("OTT") set-top boxes and Bluetooth enabled boombox solutions, along with total product and technology solutions based on the Android platform. These products feature high performance, low power multi-core CPUs and GPUs, supporting high resolution displays and wireless connectivity. Actions Technology currently has nearly 500 employees, 425 of whom are engineers. Among these engineers, more than half have over three years of research and development experience. Actions Technology is ranked among the first in terms of engineering talent, project experience and product quality within the IC design industry in China. Actions Technology is a wholly owned subsidiary of Actions Semiconductor Co. Ltd.

About Actions Semiconductor

Actions Semiconductor is one of China's leading fabless semiconductor companies that provides comprehensive portable multimedia and mobile internet system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions for portable consumer electronics. Actions Semiconductor products include SoCs, firmware, software, solution development kits, as well as detailed specifications of other required components. Actions Semiconductor also provides total product and technology solutions that allow customers to quickly introduce new portable consumer electronics to the mass market in a cost effective way. The Company is headquartered in Zhuhai, China, with offices in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Taipei. For more information, please visit the Actions Semiconductor website at http://www.actions-semi.com.

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