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Toshiba, Xilinx Announce Strategic Foundry Relationship,
Reach 90nm/300mm Manufacturing Milestone
Companies achieve first silicon success, on track
for volume production in Q1 2005
TOKYO - October 14, 2004 -- Toshiba Corporation, one of the world's
leading manufacturers of semiconductors, and Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:
XLNX), the world's leading supplier of programmable logic solutions,
today announced a strategic foundry relationship under which Toshiba
will manufacture Xilinx high-performance field programmable gate
array (FPGA) products.
Together, the companies have already achieved a key milestone with
the successful output of functional 90-nanometer (nm) first silicon
at Toshiba's state-of-the-art 300-mm-wafer manufacturing plant at
Oita, in Kyushu, Japan. Toshiba will start volume manufacturing
in the first quarter of calendar year 2005.
Toshiba and Xilinx attribute first silicon success to their proven
technology expertise as pioneers in the industry's race to 90nm
manufacturing. Both Toshiba and Xilinx were among only a handful
of semiconductor industry leaders delivering 90nm products in 2003.
As part of the manufacturing agreement, Xilinx will make advance
payments to Toshiba, which will be offset against future wafer purchases.
The amounts involved are not viewed as material to Xilinx. Success
in the present agreement is expected to point the way to continued
cooperation between Toshiba and Xilinx in next-generation 65nm manufacturing
process technology.
This agreement assures Xilinx of another source of stable supply
of cutting-edge FPGA products manufactured with the industry's most
advanced process technology, and allows the company to rely on Toshiba's
expertise in integrating high-level design and process technology.
The agreement also assures Toshiba of volume semiconductor business
in the most advanced technology from one of the world's leading
fabless semiconductor companies, thereby underscoring the company's
leadership in a significant segment of the system large scale integration
(LSI) business.
"Toshiba leads the industry in advanced process technology,
and introduced high performance logic chips using 90-nanometer process
technologies last year. In addition, Toshiba has extensive expertise
as an integrated device manufacturer. I am pleased that Xilinx,
the world's leading fabless semiconductor vendor, developed a high
opinion of Toshiba's capabilities and selected us as a new business
partner," said Mr. Masashi Muromachi, Corporate Vice President
of Toshiba Corporation and President & CEO of Toshiba's Semiconductor
Company, "With the new strategic manufacturing agreement, we
will reinforce our system LSI business and expand its scope beyond
our current custom ASIC business."
"Our early success with Toshiba bodes well for the short-
and long-term potential of our relationship," said Wim Roelandts,
Xilinx chairman and CEO "We're delighted to team with Toshiba
to lead the industry in high-quality volume manufacturing at 90nm
and below, leveraging both companies' deep technology expertise
at advanced process nodes. Our confidence is further strengthened
by Toshiba's well-known success in delivering technology for digital
consumer markets in collaboration with leading companies."
Xilinx, one of the pioneers of the fabless semiconductor business
model two decades ago, continues to be at the forefront of the race
to advanced manufacturing processes, and has established an impressive
track record, as one of the first to 150nm in 2001, 130nm in 2002,
and 90nm in 2003. Currently, Xilinx is also one of the highest volume
purchasers of 300mm wafers globally. To remain at the leading edge
and to meet growing customer demand for its popular FPGAs, the company
remains committed to a multi-source manufacturing strategy.
The new agreement with Xilinx signifies Toshiba's determination
to strengthen its presence in the advanced system large-scale integration
business, which is at the heart of today's digital consumer products.
The new fabrication facility at Oita has a crucial role to play
in the company's strategy, drawing upon Toshiba's industry-leading
know-how in CMOS process technology and track record of industry
firsts at the most advanced process technology nodes. Toshiba started
mass production of systems large scale integration with 90nm process
technology in the spring of 2003. It expects to be one of the first
semiconductor facilities in the world to deploy 65nm process and
design technologies.
Xilinx FPGAs are ideally suited to prove and test advanced manufacturing
processes, due to their regular structure and re-programmability.
Defects can be more easily identified and isolated during manufacturing
than with traditional, fixed semiconductor device architectures,
making them an ideal process driver for a volume manufacturer such
as Toshiba.
About Toshiba
Toshiba Corporation is a leader in the development and manufacture
of electronic devices and components, information and communication
systems, digital consumer products and power systems. The company's
ability to integrate wide-ranging capabilities, from hardware to
software and services, assure its position as an innovator in diverse
fields and many businesses. In semiconductors, Toshiba continues
to promote its leadership in the fast growing system-on-chip market
and to build on its world-class position in NAND flash memories,
analog devices and discrete devices. Visit Toshiba's web site at
www.toshiba.co.jp/index.htm
About Xilinx
Xilinx is the worldwide leader in complete programmable logic
solutions. For more information, visit www.xilinx.com.
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