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NEC Electronics Teams With Global Catalyst Partners to Spur Technology Innovation
-Companies to Identify Promising Start-Ups to Leverage NEC Electronics'
Instant Silicon Solution Platform for Fast-Turn, Low-NRE Semiconductor Design-
KAWASAKI, Japan, SANTA CLARA, Calif. and DUESSELDORF, Germany, March 10, 2003 -
NEC Electronics Corporation and its subsidiaries in the United States and Europe, NEC Electronics America, Inc. and NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH, today announced it has signed an agreement with Global Catalyst Partners (GCP), an international venture capital firm, to introduce NEC Electronics' Instant Silicon Solution PlatformTM (ISSPTM) technology to companies developing innovative next-generation products. Under terms of the agreement, NEC Electronics has invested with Global Catalyst Partners to promote the ISSP products to GCP's portfolio companies as a cost-effective silicon solution that enables high performance and fast design turnaround times. Global Catalyst Partners specializes in investment of seed and early-stage companies in the U.S., Europe and Asia that are developing next-generation technology products.
With uncertain market conditions and reduced levels of venture funding available, many semiconductor designers are looking for a high-performance, low-volume implementation solution. For these companies, beginning with a cell-based ASIC can be risky and cost-prohibitive. With its low non-recurring engineering (NRE) costs and low-volume requirement, NEC Electronics' ISSP devices enable a high-performance "proof-of-concept" prototype solution that supports an easy migration to mass production as volumes increase.
"Especially for early stage companies, there is tremendous pressure to deliver working silicon to market as quickly as possible," said Dr. Hitoshi Yoshizawa, general manager, 3rd Custom LSI Division, NEC Electronics Corporation. "NEC Electronics developed the high-performance ISSP devices to offer a low-risk, cost-effective, fast-turn silicon solution for a wide range of applications. We expect today's young, innovative companies can leverage this unique architecture along with NEC Electronics' experience in manufacturing, deep sub-micron design automation and intellectual property integration, to implement their designs and bring their technology to market quickly and easily. NEC Electronics intends to support a broad range of companies in their technology development efforts, and our investment with Global Catalyst Partners is just the first of many steps in this direction."
Koji Osawa, managing principal and co-founder of Global Catalyst Partners, said, "The early availability of a proven silicon prototype can sometimes make the difference in the success or failure of a start-up in a promising new technology area. By teaming with NEC Electronics to promote the ISSP architecture to our portfolio companies, we believe we can have a positive impact on future technology leaders and innovators by providing them with a solution to their time-to-market challenges."
About the Instant Silicon Solution Platform Devices
NEC Electronics' ISSP is a new class of ASIC device based on a cost-effective, high-function, easy-to-design ASIC architecture. Targeting mid-volume designs, ISSPs combine the high performance found in leading-edge, cell-based ASICs with a remarkably easy design flow. ISSP devices are easily customizable using upper metal layers to meet individual design requirements. An ISSP is ideal for designers engaged in complex, mid-volume designs with high system clock speeds. However, the platforms are generally very easy to design, consume much lower power than a comparable FPGA-based solution, and offer up to an order of magnitude lower NRE costs than cell-based designs. NEC Electronics offers a breadth of ASIC solutions using cell-based and gate array products.
The ISSP family complements these approaches by serving the growing number of mid-volume applications that cannot bear the development costs associated with leading-edge cell-based designs but which require higher complexity than a gate array or an FPGA solution.
About NEC Electronics
NEC Electronics worldwide specializes in semiconductor products encompassing advanced technology solutions for the high-end computing and broadband networking markets; system solutions for the mobile handsets, PC peripherals, automotive and digital consumer markets; and platform solutions for a wide range of customer applications.
NEC Electronics Corporation has 24 subsidiaries worldwide including NEC Electronics America, Inc. (www.am.necel.com) and NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH (www.ee.nec.de). In addition to marketing, selling and supporting NEC Electronics products to customers in their respective regions, NEC Electronics America and
NEC Electronics Europe also operate local manufacturing facilities in Roseville, California, and Ballivor, Ireland, respectively. Additionally, NEC Electronics America is the exclusive North American sales and
marketing channel of NEC AM-LCD and PDP modules. Additional information about NEC Electronics worldwide can be found at www.necel.com. NEC Electronics Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of NEC Corporation (NASDAQ: NIPNY) (FTSE: 6701q.l), one of the world's leading providers of Internet, broadband network and enterprise business solutions.
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Instant Silicon Solution Platform, ISSP and NEC Electronics America, Inc. are either trademarks or registered trademarks of NEC Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
Information in the press releases, including product prices and
specifications is current on the date of the press announcement,
but is subject to change without prior notice.
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