Cypress Names VP Production Planning; 20-Year Industry Veteran Aims to Enhance Production Systems to Meet Increasing Demand.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 23, 2000

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (NYSE:CY) today announced the appointment of Robert Morse as vice president of production planning.

He is chartered to manage Cypress's production control and order fulfillment systems at a time when record demand in the semiconductor industry has placed increasing pressure on manufacturing systems. Morse will report to Richard Freeman, Cypress vice president of manufacturing.

Continued strong demand for Cypress products, particularly those for the networking and telecommunications markets, produced record revenues of $705.5 million in 1999, including record new product revenues of $114.7 million. Industry analysts expect unit demand in the semiconductor business to continue to soar in the year 2000, and Cypress aims to keep pace through a transition to smaller geometries, capital investment, manufacturing improvements, and capacity added to the mix via recent acquisitions.

Broadly described, production planning aims to match a company's manufacturing capacity with market demand, as outlined by product marketing, sales, and other front-line functions in direct contact with customers. Advocating a "holistic" approach to business processes and systems, Morse aims to integrate sales, marketing, planning, logistics, finance and manufacturing to enhance the company's responsiveness and customer-service.

"Demand fluctuations in volume and product mix must be comprehended and executed upon quickly and intelligently throughout the supply chain without adding significant administrative costs," Morse said. "Under Cypress's Total Productive Manufacturing initiative, the company has increased quality while decreasing cycle time and time to market. The goal is to build on that track record."

"Cypress has made rapid progress improving its order fulfillment, business systems, and processes," Freeman said. "Rob has gathered a wealth of experience in planning and manufacturing operations and supporting systems. He will undoubtedly upgrade our ability to more efficiently cycle through intense demand that shows no signs of abating."

A 20-year industry veteran of Intel and IDT, Morse's experience spans from front-end wafer fabrication facilities through the product lines and manufacturing administration. Earning his B.S. in finance from the University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, Morse has served in various positions, including fab area manager, static RAM product line director, director of operations, and director of corporate planning.

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 www.cypress.com or by CD-ROM (call 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.