Licence Agreement

Arc International PLC
20 July 2001


Digital camera success wins new licence for ARC technology from Conexant

Elstree, England, 20 July 2001 -ARC International plc (LSE: ARK), a leading
developer of customisable, high-performance microprocessors and related
intellectual property (IP) solutions, has announced today that Conexant
Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CNXT), has re-affirmed its commitment to ARC's
technology by licensing the ARCtangent TM user-customisable processor for its
next generation of digital imaging system chips. This follows the success of
its current generation digital camera chip set, which is used by several of
the world's leading camera manufacturers.

ARC's technology will be incorporated in Conexant's next-generation,
low-power, high performance imaging chips. The company currently uses ARC's
processor as a part of its Raptor II chip, which has been incorporated in many
cameras, including Toshiba's 3.3 megapixel PDR-M65 and cameras from other
companies such as Polaroid and RCA.

Nigel Heather, vice-president of engineering, hardware IP and tools at ARC,
said, 'By moving to the platform approach that ARC provides with its
ARCtangent processor, Conexant is able to reap the real rewards of IP re-use
and integration as enabled by ARC's IP portfolio. Our aim at ARC has been to
develop a system-on-chip development platform that provides the individual
elements of pre-verified hardware and software IP as well as development
tools. This is unique among processor platforms since competing solutions are
likely to put the onus on the SoC developer to integrate and verify all the
individual IP elements that make up their SoC. At ARC, we do that for the
designer with the IP that we have provided.'



ARC won the original Raptor II design slot as a result of the ease with which
its user-customisable 32-bit microprocessor could be designed in - the
integration of the processor into the chip was completed by Conexant's ASIC
design team in just five days. Raptor II is a powerful and highly integrated
chip that includes the Raptor II advanced SIMD DSP image processing engine and
ARC's core. It controls virtually all functions of a digital camera, and
provides control over functions including: motors, USB, IrDa, ATA controllers,
NTSC/PAL/LCD or direct digital displays that would normally require additional
external control logic.

Ends



For more information contact:



ARC International:

Peter Aubusson, Investor Relations Manager, [phone]

Nitin Dahad, Director of Worldwide Communications, [phone]



About ARC International

ARC International plc is a leading developer of customisable, high-performance
microprocessor cores, including ARCtangentTM, and related intellectual
property technology enabling designers to reduce time to market for their
system-on-a-chip products. 56 customers use ARC's technology including:
Austria Mikro Systeme, BrightCom, Conexant Systems, Fujitsu Microelectronics,
IBM, Infineon Technologies, SanDisk, Texas Instruments and VTech
Communications. Products available based on ARC's technology include digital
still cameras, set-top boxes, and network processors.

MetaWare Inc., Precise Software Technologies Inc. and VAutomation Inc. are
wholly owned subsidiaries of ARC International, providing software development
tools, hardware and software intellectual property and real-time operating
systems for an integrated approach to system on a chip development. ARC's
third party partners include Cadence, Flextronics, Intrinsix, Synopsys, TSMC,
UMC, WindRiver and Xilinx.

With headquarters in Elstree, England, ARC International plc and its group
companies employ approximately 300 people in research and development, sales,
and marketing offices across North America, Europe and Israel. ARC
International plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE:ARK). The
company's website is located at www.arccores.com.

Statements made in this press release that are not historical facts include
forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Important
factors that could cause actual results to differ from those indicated by such
forward-looking statements include, among others, market acceptance of the ARC
technology; fluctuations in and unpredictability of the Company's quarterly
results; general economic and business conditions; regulatory policies adopted
by governmental authorities; assumptions regarding the Company's future
business strategy; changes in technology; competition; ability to attract and
retain qualified personnel; risks associated with the Company's international
operations; and other uncertainties that are discussed in the 'Investment
Considerations' section of the Company's listing particulars dated 28
September 2000 filed with the United Kingdom Listing Authority and the
Registrar of Companies in England and Wales.

ARC International (UK) Ltd. and ARC Cores, Inc., both of which are wholly
owned subsidiaries of ARC International plc, trade under the name of ARC
Cores. ARC Cores, ARCtangent and ARCangel are trademarks of ARC International
(UK) Ltd. All other brands or product names are the property of their
respective holders.