Chief Executives from Leading Semiconductor and Nanoelectronic Start-Ups to Present at Dow Jones MicroVentures Conference.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Industry and Market Context To Be Provided by Experts From Cadence Design, Qualcomm and Stanford University on Dec. 13 and 14, 2005, in Redwood City, Calif.

Eighty chief executives from the most promising semiconductor and nanoelectronic start-up companies have been invited to present their business plans to an audience of venture capitalists, analysts, chief technology officers and corporate development executives at this year's MicroVentures Conference--produced by Dow Jones VentureWire--Dec. 13 and 14, 2005, at the Sofitel San Francisco Bay in Redwood City, Calif.

Now in its fourth year, MicroVentures is the bellwether event for the chip industry, providing an impartial view of the emerging semiconductor-related technologies and services in areas such as communications, electronic design automation, multimedia, nanoelectronics, power management, silicon systems, and wireless. The two-day event will feature compelling panel discussions on the challenges of targeting the consumer market for semiconductor companies, how nanotechnology can drive value and differentiation and best practices for building the new breed of chip start-ups.

Among the featured keynote presenters is Michael Fister, president and chief executive officer of Cadence Design Systems. The former Intel executive will discuss his plans for maintaining Cadence's market-leadership position in an interview with Don Clark, deputy bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau.

Another keynote presentation will feature Sanjay Jha, executive vice president of CDMA technologies at Qualcomm. In an on-stage interview with Barron's Editor Mark Vevereka, Mr. Jha will discuss the ongoing growth in his division, one of the largest fabless semiconductor designers in the world.

Attendees also will learn about the most promising emerging chip technologies from R. Fabian Pease, the William Ayer Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University.

This year's MicroVentures Conference is sponsored by Latham & Watkins LLP. Association partners include the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association and FSA. Exhibitors include MIPS Technology Inc. and Virtual PR.

For more information or to register, call [phone] or go to www.micro-ventures.com.

About VentureWire

VentureWire produces the leading daily newsletters and industry events for the venture capital market (http://venturecapital.dowjones.com). The group is a unit of Dow Jones Newswires (www.djnewswires.com).

About Dow Jones Newswires

Through its Dow Jones Newswires unit, Dow Jones (www.djnewsletters.com) produces focused, sector-specific online databases, newsletters and industry events as well as providing (www.djnewswires.com) real-time news for financial professionals in the equities, fixed-income, foreign exchange and energy markets, and also offers news for financial firms' Web sites. Newsletters published by Dow Jones include Private Equity Analyst, VentureWire Professional, and Daily Bankruptcy Review. In addition to Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones & Company (NYSE: DJ) publishes The Wall Street Journal and its international and online editions, Barron's and the Far Eastern Economic Review, Dow Jones Indexes, MarketWatch, and the Ottaway group of community newspapers. Dow Jones is co-owner with Reuters Group of Factiva, with Hearst of SmartMoney and with NBC Universal of CNBC television operations in Asia and Europe. Dow Jones also provides news content to CNBC and radio stations in the U.S.