Chip Express Names Sharone Zehavi to New Position as Vice President of Business Development.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 29, 1999--

Chip Express Corporation today announced the appointment of Sharone Zehavi to a new position as Vice President of Business Development, reporting to Alex Leupp, Chip Express President and CEO. Zehavi is poised to drive the company's business strategy and positioning in the ASIC marketplace.

"Being with Chip Express for almost 10 years, Sharone will draw upon his profound knowledge of the company's operations and technology to develop and pursue new business opportunities," said Alex Leupp, Chip Express President and CEO. "This effort is aimed at enabling OEMs to take advantage of the company's proven embedded solutions for system-on-a-chip applications. Time-to-market requirements, combined with increasing design complexities, are creating a strong demand for our technology."

Sharone Zehavi has been with Chip Express since 1990 and was serving most recently as Vice President of Operations. In the new position as Vice President of Business Development, Zehavi will be responsible for evaluating and managing new initiatives and business opportunities for Chip Express. He will define and build the competitive marketing strategy to capitalize on the company's strengths. At the same time, he will oversee market analysis activity and define customer needs, attitudes, perceptions and the opportunities they present.

"While continuing our traditional role of fast-turn ASIC vendor, we'll focus on positioning Chip Express as a chipless company with valuable Intellectual Property that can be leveraged to a successful technology licensing business model," said Zehavi. "Chip Express' enabling technology for flexible production-ready system-on-a-chip has been demonstrated through experience with Lucent Microelectronics. With this offering, we'll provide our customers most beneficial use of their capability, enhancing product competitiveness by means of shorter system design cycle and fastest time-to-market."

During his tenure at Chip Express, Zehavi has held various process, R&D and operations management positions. He headed the in-house production facility from its inception and was responsible for all LPGA fabrication. Prior to joining Chip Express, Zehavi worked for National Semiconductor in Israel. He is co-inventor of two patents related to semiconductor processes. Zehavi received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Technion Institute of Technology, Israel.

Chip Express Corporation is the world leader in the development and application of laser-based technology for rapid customization of semiconductor devices. The company has developed unique capabilities that allow gate array personalization outside of conventional fabs for ASIC prototypes and low volume production. This is followed with a smooth migration to high-volume production provided through foundry partners. Its unique product - the LPGA (Laser Programmable Gate Array) - delivers high ASIC performance with a seamless migration from prototypes to any volume production, enabling fast time-to-market, design flexibility and reduced production-costs. Headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., Chip Express is a privately held corporation, founded in the U.S. in 1989.