Cypress Hits 50 Million Mark in USB Shipments.

Business Editors/High-tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 24, 2000

Offering a USB Microcontroller For Every PC Peripheral

Application, Company Lays the Groundwork For

Expansion Into Emerging USB 2.0 Market

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (NYSE:CY) today announced that it recently shipped its 50-millionth universal serial bus (USB) microcontroller. USB controller chips connect PCs and their peripherals with "plug-and-play" simplicity and compatibility.

Cypress reached the 50-million-unit milestone in just three years and expects to reach the 100-million-unit mark late this year.

Drawing on a variety of implementation schemes, architectures, and feature sets, Cypress offers a microcontroller for virtually every USB peripheral, from low-speed devices such as mice, keyboards, and joysticks, to full-speed hubs, to high-speed modems, scanners and digital cameras.

With an installed base of 250 million PCs, Dataquest predicts that the number of USB-enabled PCs will grow to 700 million by the end of 2003. Cypress anticipates that its USB sales will triple this year to around $100 million. Cypress also expects to sample controllers in the third quarter for the emerging USB 2.0 standard, a specification with target speeds up to 480 Mbps.

"Becoming the first supplier to reach the 50 million mark in USB shipments is the direct result of our ability to provide silicon, tools and support across the entire range of USB speeds and applications" said Cathal Phelan, vice president of interface products. "The next target is to be the first supplier to ship solutions for the new USB 2.0 standard. Leveraging the technology gained last year through the acquisition of Anchor Chips, our own expertise in high-speed transceiver design, and a solid, expanding portfolio of USB design wins, Cypress is uniquely positioned to be first to USB 2.0 and to retain its leadership position in this extremely fast-growing market."

Cypress's first USB controller -- the CY7C63000 mouse controller -- was designed under contract with Microsoft for that company's original IntelliMouse(R) product. Cypress recently parlayed this placement into a design win in Microsoft's optical-sensor-driven, next-generation Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer.

With the acquisition of Anchor Chips in 1999, Cypress added a family of high-end USB devices to address a wide variety of full-speed USB applications such ADSL modems and mass storage. With solutions for low-speed, full-speed and hubs, Cypress provides the broadest range of USB products to a wide range of PC peripheral equipment manufacturers.

About Cypress

Cypress Semiconductor provides high-performance integrated circuit solutions "By Engineers. For Engineers.(TM)" for fast-growing companies in fast-growing markets, including data communications, telecommunications, computation, consumer products, and industrial-control. With a focus on emerging communications applications, Cypress's product lines include networking-optimized and micropower static RAMs; high-bandwidth multiport and FIFO memories; high-density programmable logic devices; timing technology for PCs and other digital systems; and controllers for Universal Serial Bus (USB). Cypress is No. 1 in the USB and clock chip markets.

More than two-thirds of Cypress's sales come from fast-growing datacom/telecom markets and dynamic companies such as Alcatel, Cisco, Ericsson, Lucent, Motorola, Nortel Networks, and 3Com. Cypress's ability to mix and match its broad portfolio of intellectual property enables targeted, integrated solutions for high-speed systems that feed bandwidth-hungry Internet applications. Cypress aims to become the preferred silicon supplier for Internet switching systems and for every Internet data stream to pass through at least one Cypress IC.

Cypress employs more than 3,600 people worldwide with international headquarters in San Jose, California. Its shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CY. More information about Cypress is accessible electronically on the company's worldwide web site at http://www.cypress.com or by CD-ROM (call 1-800-858-1810). An electronic investor forum, and other investor information, is located at http://www.cypress.com/investor/index.html.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements herein that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" involving risks and uncertainties. Please refer to Cypress's Securities and Exchange Commission filings for a discussion of such risks.

Note to Editors: Microsoft, IntelliMouse, IntelliEye, Windows and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the U.S. and/or other countries.