Contact:
Ralph Waggitt
Vice President Marketing
Flextronics Semiconductor
(408) 542-8414
FLEXTRONICS SEMICONDUCTOR ANNOUNCES PURCHASE OF SILICON IP BUSINESS FROM INGENUUS, FORMERLY ASPEC TECHNOLOGY
Sunnyvale, Calif., June 1, 2000 – Flextronics Semiconductor, a group of Flextronics International (NASDAQ: FLEX), today announced that it had recently concluded the purchase of the silicon library and IP business unit of Aspec Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASPC), now known as Ingenuus.
Flextronics Semiconductor, formerly Dii Semiconductor, was part of the recently completed acquisition of the Dii Group by Flextronics International. Founded in 1985 as Orbit Semiconductor, the company had been a part of the Dii Group since 1996, focussing on the retargeting of ASICs and FPGAs for cost reduction or guaranteed long-term supply.
The use of FPGAs for prototyping to achieve rapid development of new products is increasing as manufacturers respond to time-to-market pressures. However, these solutions are often too expensive for volume manufacturing. By including a plan for conversion in their design methodology, customers can meet their targets for both reduced system development time and competitive system cost.
The EOL (End of Life) opportunities are becoming much more significant as many of the larger ASIC suppliers are accelerating the migration of their products to more advanced lithographies and obsoleting older products. Using the existing design files and working silicon, the conversion to a technology with long-term support is a lower risk and cost than the traditional approach of building inventory as part of a last-time-buy.
The recent acquisition from Aspec includes the intellectual property and tools associated with Aspec's traditional ASIC libraries business. The technical group consists of 40 engineers who bring substantial experience and resources in the deep sub-micron area to the services already provided by Flextronics Semiconductor.
Ronald R. Snyder, president of Flextronics Semiconductor, commented "This acquisition significantly strengthens our technological capabilities in serving our datacom and telecom customers. Their expertise in library and architecture development for deep sub-micron designs will complement and expand our existing team."
The Aspec libraries have been supplied to many large OEMs and IDMs and are in production at 0.35m and 0.25m today. Libraries for 0.18m are under development. According to Ralph Waggitt, VP Marketing at Flextronics Semiconductor, "The stand-alone library business has changed dramatically in recent years, and it is a tough market. The ASIC business is still about shipping silicon, and as part of Flextronics Semiconductor, this group can be a part of that and contribute significantly to our future growth. We will be making further product announcements in coming months as we roll out the new capabilities of the expanded team."
Flextronics Semiconductor is the semiconductor group of Flextronics International. It focuses on ASIC retargeting, Field-Programmable Gate Array conversion and high-volume supply of application-specific integrated circuits, with design centers in California, Colorado, Israel and India. For more information, please visit the web site at www.flextronicssemi.com
Flextronics (NASDAQ: FLEX) is a global full-service supplier of a full spectrum of value-added Electronic Manufacturing Services. Its global original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers include leaders in fast-growth communications, computers, medical and consumer markets where innovation, time-to-market, product miniaturization and cost reduction are paramount. For more information, please visit the Flextronics web site at www.flextronics.com
Copyright © 2000, Flextronics International USA, Inc. All rights reserved.
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