Company will develop and commercialise SMIA-compliant modules

Toshiba Corporation has announced its decision to develop and commercialise camera modules that are compliant with the Standard Mobile Imaging Architecture (SMIA) specification proposed by Nokia and STMicroelectronics.

In recent years Toshiba has made a significant contribution to the growth of the camera phone market through its CMOS Image Sensor family of high performance, miniature camera modules. Development and commercialisation of products in the 1.3 and 2 Megapixel range in 2005 and 2006, coupled with the commitment to the SMIA standard, will further support this growth.

Discussing the company's decision to develop products that meet the SMIA specification, Mr. Murao, General Manager of Toshiba System LSI Div I, comments: "The camera module market is growing rapidly and there are increasing demands for standardisation of the specifications. To help meet those demands with proven, high performance solutions, Toshiba has decided to develop and commercialise camera modules that will be compliant with the SMIA standard."

Introduced by Nokia and STMicroelectronics in 2004, SMIA is an open standard for use by all companies manufacturing, buying or specifying miniature integrated camera modules for use in mobile applications. The standard defines a highly flexible imaging sensor resolution and is applicable to three types of compact camera modules using a serial interface with a reduced number of pins.

About Toshiba
Toshiba Corporation is a leader in information and communications systems, electronic components, consumer products and power systems. The company's integration of these wide-ranging capabilities assures its position as an innovator in advanced components, products and systems. Toshiba has more than 161,000 employees worldwide and annual sales of over US$53 billion (FY2003).

Toshiba Electronics Europe (TEE) is the European Headquarters for the electronic components business of Toshiba Corporation, which is the world's fourth largest semiconductor vendor according to estimates by Dataquest.

Providing design, manufacturing, marketing and sales, TEE was formed in 1973 in Neuss, Germany. The company now has headquarters in D�sseldorf, Germany and subsidiaries in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Company president is Mr Shikama and the total number of personnel in Europe is around 400.

Toshiba Electronics Europe offers one of the industry's broadest IC and discrete product lines including high-end memory, microcontrollers, ASICs, ASSPs and display products for automotive, multimedia, consumer, telecoms and networking applications. The company also has a wide range of power semiconductor solutions.

For more company information visit Toshiba's web site at www.toshiba-components.com