Cypress Semiconductor Selects Global Factory's Solution for Collaborative Supply Chain Management.

Business Editors & Technology Writers

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 12, 2000

eBusiness Expo: Global Factory, Inc. (Santa Clara, California), a leading provider of Collaborative Manufacturing Execution (CME) platform, today announced that Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (NYSE:CY), has selected the Global Factory Network solution to establish a web-based collaborative connection with all of its suppliers. This solution will help Cypress effectively manage its product cycle in real-time and hence improve supply chain efficiencies resulting in improved delivery, shorter turnaround time and reduced inventories. The Global Factory Network will be used initially to enable collaboration with the suppliers, by exchanging engineering and quality data, along with work-in-process and order release information. Cypress will begin implementing the solution immediately, as a member of the Global Factory Network.

"eCollaboration with our suppliers is a Cypress priority to increase the efficiency of our supply chain, reduce cycle time, and eventually improve customer service," said John Ramacciotti, Cypress's Vice President of Procurement. "Global Factory Network's solution fits perfectly into our overall supply chain strategy - shortening our links to our suppliers, our time to market and our time to profitability."

The Global Factory Network is a web-based collaboration platform designed for easy field configuration and rapid, low risk implementation. The CME platform allows all parties of the supply chain to collaborate in real-time through the Global Factory Network hub. The hosted application provides for sharing data on manufacturing, engineering, quality, order-release and forecast information, as if the partners were communicating within one extended enterprise. Alerting and exception reporting are available for all these features, enabling managers to focus on problem solving while avoiding the hassle of reviewing the huge amount of data which represents satisfactory performance and does not require immediate reaction. Manufacturing service suppliers and their customers subscribe to the Global Factory Network to communicate and obtain critical information for successful operations management.

"Global Factory is proud to work with a market leader such as Cypress Semiconductor and to have the opportunity to add value to their supply chain management," commented Sharone Zehavi, Global Factory President and CEO. "Global Factory will continue to further enhance its Collaborative Manufacturing Execution solution to address the electronics industry needs. Manufacturing outsourcing is ever increasing and managing it effectively is a major challenge. Our business strategy supports easy entry of all parties in a supply chain to enable global collaboration and achieve fast impact on productivity, customer satisfaction and time-to-market. We look forward to having all Cypress' supply chain partners - suppliers as well as customers - become members of the Global Factory Network and take advantage of the ease-of-implementation, fast adoption of the application, and one month return on investment."

About Cypress

Cypress Semiconductor is "Driving the Communications Revolution(TM)" by providing high-performance integrated circuit solutions to fast-growing markets, including data communications, telecommunications, computation, consumer products, and industrial control. With a focus on emerging communications applications, Cypress' product portfolios include networking-optimized and micropower static RAMs; high-bandwidth multi-port 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 communications 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 4,100 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 800/858-1810). An electronic investor forum, and other investor information, is located at http://www.cypress.com/investor/index.html.

About Global Factory

Global Factory, based in Santa Clara, California, is leveraging the Internet technology to create the Global Factory Network, a web-based application for extended-enterprise collaboration. The company provides its network members with a seamless and secure cross-enterprise operations management solution. The Global Factory Network is the first Collaborative Manufacturing Execution platform. Subscribing to the Global Factory Network enables manufacturing suppliers and customers to communicate production status, forecast and loading visibility, delivery schedule and other operations management information. All parties in a collaborative manufacturing chain can operate as if communicating from within one enterprise. The Global Factory Network is subscription-based for affordability and is field configurable for rapid and low risk implementation.

Global Factory was founded in 1999.