Vimicro Corporation (Nasdaq: VIMC), a leading fabless semiconductor company designing advanced mixed-signal multimedia products and solutions, and Microsoft China, reaffirmed their strategic partnership during a ceremony in Beijing on May 24. The companies are continuing to cooperate in the Microsoft-Vimicro Multimedia Technology Center, originally established in 2003 within Vimicro's Beijing headquarters, and are expanding the scope of their work together to include the mobile multimedia sector. Mike Yu, vice president of Vimicro is appointed as the Dean of Microsoft-Vimicro Multimedia Technology Center.

Vimicro and Microsoft China are finalizing a Memorandum of Understanding to increase their joint efforts in further developing the digital multimedia market. One goal of the Microsoft-Vimicro Multimedia Technology Center is to enable Vimicro's multimedia processors to be compiled to the requirements of Windows Vista drivers and be ready to get Windows Vista logo certification.

''Vimicro is honored to be Microsoft's ongoing partner,'' said Dr. John Deng, chairman and founder of Vimicro. ''Over the past four years, Microsoft and Vimicro have experienced great successes. As a result of our collaboration, Vimicro has earned international recognition for the quality of our products at a faster rate and Chinese Ministry of Information Industry's recognition as the outstanding representative of Chinese IC design industry. Together, Vimicro and Microsoft are continuing to cooperate in multimedia area and expand the international digital multimedia market.''

Dr. Ya-Qin Zhang, corporate vice president of Microsoft and chairman of Microsoft China Research and Development Group stated, ''Technology innovation is essential to China's sustainable economic development. Microsoft desires to contribute to China's innovation blueprint by developing a flourishing IT eco-system through collaborating with partners on innovation. Vimicro is one of the outstanding independent innovation representatives in China. Through combining the innovation thoughts, strength and experience together, we're confident that this new collaboration will continue to provide world-class digital multimedia experiences to consumers.''

Through their partnership over the past four years, Vimicro and Microsoft have cooperated in real-time multimedia communications and 3C convergence areas. The collaboration has already resulted in breakthrough PC-camera and embedded notebook-camera solutions.

Vimicro and Microsoft began collaborating in 2002, when they formed a strategic partnership to promote Windows-based digital imaging technology in the worldwide market. The partnership combined Vimicro's VXP imaging technology with the Windows XP platform to provide an enhanced multimedia experience for PC-users worldwide.

About Vimicro

Vimicro International Corporation is a leading fabless semiconductor company in China designing, developing and marketing proprietary digital multimedia signal processing chips and solutions enabling multimedia applications for mobile phones over 2.5G/3G networks and PCs over broadband Internet.