Chip Express Announces LPGA Production Cost Reduction.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 21, 1997--Chip Express Corporation today announced it is slashing the prices of its LPGA (Laser Programmable Gate Array) families, effective immediately. Specifically, the company will offer a 30-50% reduction on both low and high volume ASIC production orders.

Pricing for 208QFP packaged LPGA devices: -0-

              Usable  Embedded                      Old      New
Tech.  Member  Gates   Memory   Quantity  TAT(a)   Price    Price

.6m   CX2050    50K   32k bits    1000   3 weeks  $120.39  $ 60.59
.6m   CX2081    80K   32k bits    5000   1 month  $ 40.26  $ 29.54
.6m   CX2201   160K   96k bits     400   3 weeks  $380.00  $169.59
.5m   CX2102   100K   32k bits  60,000   2 month     N/A   $ 15.20(b)

(a) Turn-around-time of 1 week available at additional cost.
(b) available Q3, 1997.

    "While the industry's cost of first silicon is increasing due to
higher semiconductor fabrication costs, Chip Express is able to
maintain a stable low cost.  We are able to cut costs due to our
unique customization techniques: Laser protoyping, one die at a time,
requiring no masks and low-volume production, one wafer at a time,
requiring only one mask," stated Uzi Breier, Director of Marketing.
    "In high volume production, the savings are due to the
availability of a smaller feature size with the migration into .5m
technology and the use of only two masks for customization.
Moreover, since the industry recently cut the prices of the silicon
wafers, Chip Express was in turn able to pass the savings onto our
customers," Breier added.
    The company's newly released CX2001 LPGA is also included in
today's price reduction.  The price of the CX LPGA Families, 0.6m,
3LM CMOS gate array with up to 200k gates + up to 128k bits of
configurable memory, has been reduced by up to 45% in production
volumes.  This cost reduction combined with the company's fast
turn-around-time (as short as 1 day for prototypes and 1 week for low
volume production) allows Chip Express to be more competitive in the
ASIC market and offer its customers the advantages of traditional
gate arrays together with the flexible manufacturing and time to
market of FPGAs.
    This reduced pricing structure enables Chip Express to offer even
greater price/performance value to high-density FPGA users and
increase their cost savings for volume ASIC production.  LPGAs
typically show a significant performance advantage compared to an
FPGA running in the same system because of smaller RC (resistive and
capacitive) delays.
    The FPGAs are substantially more expensive in production when
compared with similar LPGA densities since the additional silicon
overhead area needed for programming circuitry and interconnect
resources end up in a large die size, almost 10 times larger than the
LPGA.  LPGAs have a significant cost advantage over FPGAs because the
laser device begins with a "true" gate array architecture that
includes no active programming elements.  As a result of these
advantages, LPGAs have become a popular industry alternative to
FPGAs.
    In addition to lower pricing, there is also time savings when
using Chip Express for ASIC production.  The design cycle time is
reduced since with Chip Express' technology the migration to
production does not require additional engineering efforts by the
design team.  Using the same layout, a seamless path from prototype
to any volume production is provided.  The LPGA device is "ASIC
Production-Ready" once prototypes are approved.

LPGA Vs FPGA production price:
-0-

Part No. 5000 pcs

Chip Express CX2081 $ 29.54 Comparable FPGA device $295.00

-0-
    The table above compares production pricing of FPGA devices with
the Chip Express CX2081.  Both devices are comparable due to similar
usable gate density and a similar amount of embedded SRAM.  A
substantial 10x cost difference is realized by the LPGA in volumes of
5000 pcs.
-0-
    Chip Express Corporation is the world leader in "Time-to-Market
Solution" 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 laser
micro-machining system; one week flexible production utilizing its'
innovative OneMask process to personalize a single wafer at a time;
and a smooth transition to its TwoMask 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, military and consumer
companies worldwide including Apple Computer, Hewlett Packard, Intel,
3Com, Cisco Systems, Bay Networks, Lockheed Martin, Hughes Aircraft,
and National Semiconductor.
    All trademarks and registered trademarks are those of their
respective companies.  The graphic and available text of this release
as well as additional background information may be downloaded from
our website at http://www.chipexpress.com

CONTACT: Chip Express

Uzi Breier, 408/235-7339

Fax: [phone]

E-Mail: [e-mail]

or

Tsipi Landen, 408/235-7353

Fax: [phone]

E-Mail: [e-mail]