Cypress Semiconductor

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Cypress Semiconductor Corp
Type Public (NYSECY)
Founded Delaware, U.S. (1982)
Founder(s) T. J. Rodgers
Headquarters San Jose, California, U.S.
Number of locations 14 Design Centers, 40 Sales Offices (2000)
Industry Semiconductors
Revenue US$1.6Bn (2007)
Employees 6,000 (2007)
Divisions Memory and Imaging Division, Data Communications Division, Consumer and Computations Division
Subsidiaries Sunpower Corp, Silicon Light Machines
Website Cypress.com

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (NYSECY) is a Silicon Valley-based semiconductor design and manufacturing company founded by T. J. Rodgers and others from Advanced Micro Devices. It was formed in 1982 with backing by Sevin Rosen and went public in 1986. The company initially focused on the design and development of high speed CMOS SRAMs, EEPROMs, PAL devices, and TTL logic devices. Two years after going public the company switched from the NASDAQ to the New York Stock Exchange where it continues to trade under the symbol (NYSECY). Its headquarters are in San Jose, California, and it has divisions in the United States, India and the Philippines as well as fabs in Minnesota and Texas.

Some of its main competitors include Microchip, Integrated Device Technology, Samsung Electronics, and Xilinx.

Contents

[edit] Acquisition strategy

Since its founding, Cypress has acted as an incubator for wholly owned subsidiaries which are given a degree of autonomy and has acquired other small technology companies. Since the mid-1990s these acquisitions have included:

  • PSoC
  • Timing Technology:
    • IC Works
    • International Microcircuits Inc.
  • USB Technology:
    • Anchor Chips
    • In-System Design
    • ScanLogic
  • SRAM Technology:
    • Galvantech, Inc.
    • Cascade Semiconductor Corporation
    • Simtek
  • Radio Frequency Technology:
    • RadioCom
    • Alation
  • Solar Cell Technology (distributed to CY shareholders in 2008 as SPWRB stock)
  • Image Sensors
    • Silicon Light Machines
    • FillFactory
    • SMaL Camera Technologies(Sold to Sensata Technologies in 2007)
  • Network Technology
    • Silicon Packets
    • Lara Networks
    • HiBand Semiconductors

In addition, Cypress has incorporated some of its technology into subsidiaries, in order to speed up development of such products as the PSoC Programmable System-on-Chip (SoC) that integrates analog and digital components with a microcontroller on a single chip to form a complete solution for embedded systems.

[edit] Major product offerings

[edit] Patents

Cypress Semiconductors currently has about 750 patents relating to its products. The patents pertain to numerous product types, including programmable clocks, programmable logic, and PSoC programmable system-on chip devices. PSoC patents are the fastest growing segment within the portfolio.[citation needed]

In total, Cypress has been granted over 1650 patents. In addition to the granted patents, Cypress currently has over 1100 patents pending, including over 300 applications related to programmable technology.[1]

[edit] Location

Cypress has manufacturing plants and design facilities in the United States (the largest of which are in San Jose CA, Lynnwood WA, Boise ID, San Diego CA, and Beaverton OR), the Philippines, Belgium, Bangalore and Hyderabad in India, China, and in Ireland.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Cypress Patents
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