Chip Express Announces CX2002 LPGA Family for Production Cost Reduction.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 11, 1997--Chip Express Corporation today announced the availability of its CX2002 LPGA, a new family of fast turnaround ASICs for cost-effective production.

The CX2002 LPGA is manufactured in a 0.5 micron , 3-Layer Metal CMOS gate array process on silicon fabricated at Chartered Semiconductor (Singapore). An additional foundry partner will be announced later this year. Chip Express is passing on to its customers the lower costs resulting from the die size reduction and yield improvement. The CX2002 LPGA is offered as a cost-reduction solution for the CX2001 LPGA, 0.6 family. This new family is targeted for customers with high-volume ASIC production requirements.

The CX2002 LPGA complements the company's advantages of time-to-market and provides a smooth migration from rapid prototyping to high-volume production with a significant cost reduction. CX2002 devices are priced from 7 millicents per gate in high volume production. This represents up to a 70% reduction off current product prices.

"The new CX2002 LPGA family enables us to lower the price per gate and be very price competitive in high volume production. The low prices will allow our customers to gain both the short time-to-market usually associated with FPGAs together with the significantly low prices of traditional gate arrays," said Bob Sandler, Director of Marketing.

The CX2001 LPGA is used as the fast prototyping vehicle for the CX2002, providing a seamless migration path for high volume production. To answer the need for low-volume production, Chip Express employs the proprietary OneMask technology, personalizing one wafer at a time.

The CX2002 has the same architecture, cell structure and uses the same netlist as the CX2001 LPGA. The CX2002 LPGA with up to 160k usable gates plus up to 128k bits of embedded configurable high-speed memory and up to 536 I/Os, also features analog PLL (Phase-Locked Loop) capability, full-scan ATPG, low power consumption and the flexibility of programmable 3V/5V mixed voltage. With the PLL capability, core logic can be synthesized for higher operating clock frequencies. A wide range of popular packaging types are available including PQFP up to 304 pins, PGA up to 391 pins and BGA up to 352 pins.

The CX2002 LPGA family has currently one initial member - the CX2052M32: with 35k usable gates plus 32K bits of memory, 208 I/Os, and 2 APLL configurations. Six additional members are planned to be released, based upon customer demand. Chip Express is currently developing the 0.35 micron LPGA with foundry partners for further enhancing its high-volume offerings.

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Note to Editors: CHIP EXPRESS CORPORATION is the world leader in "Time-to-Market Solution(R)" for high-performance, high-density ASIC devices. Chip Express provides the industry's fastest-turn ASIC products including a one day gate array prototyping service utilizing the QuICk(R) laser micro-machining system; one week flexible production utilizing its innovative OneMask(R) process to personalize a single wafer at a time; and a smooth transition to its TwoMask(TM) technology process for cost competitive high volume production in as short as one month.

Chip Express is a privately held corporation, founded in the US in 1989. From its headquarters in Santa Clara, CA, Chip Express services leading-edge computer, communications and military companies worldwide including Hewlett Packard, Intel, 3Com, Sun, Cisco Systems, Bay Networks, Lockheed Martin, Hughes Aircraft, and National Semiconductor.

CONTACT: Chip Express Corp.

Bob Sandler, 408/235-7348

[e-mail]

Tsipi Landen, 408/235-7353

[e-mail]

www.chipexpress.com