Fabless Semiconductor Association Announces Nominees For 2004 Awards

SAN JOSE, Calif. (Nov. 22, 2004) – The Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA), the voice of the global fabless business model, announces the nominees for its 2004 awards to be presented at the Association’s tenth annual Awards Dinner Celebration.

This awards program celebrates leadership in the semiconductor industry and recognizes public and private fabless companies demonstrating excellence through their success, vision, strategy and future opportunity in the fabless industry. The award categories, explanation of the award nomination process and nominee lists include:

Most Respected Private and Public Fabless Company - An FSA search committee comprised of industry experts narrowed down the list of more than 900 private fabless companies and more than 70 public fabless companies in the world, with chosen nominees selected based on analysis of the companies’ performance, reputation and likelihood of long-term success. From the list formed by the committee, the fabless community, semiconductor financial and industry analysts and suppliers are asked to select one company from the list that they most respect in terms of product, vision, strategy and future opportunities.

Private company nominees are:
• AuthenTec
• Cavium Networks
• SiGe Semiconductor

Public company nominees are:
• Broadcom Corporation
• Solomon Systech (International) Limited
• Xilinx, Inc.

Best Financially Managed Company - The FSA research staff, in conjunction with financial analysts, evaluate the health of public fabless semiconductor companies traded on the U.S. exchanges by comparing financial indices such as: return on investment, return on equity, inventory turns, revenue, net income, days sales outstanding, cash per share, cash burn rate, gross profit margin, operating margin and current ratio. The company that excelled most often within each category is determined the winner.

Nominees are:
• DSP Group, Inc.
• QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies
• SanDisk Corporation

Fabless Start-Up to Watch – The FSA Venture Capital Advisory Board selects the winner by identifying the company that demonstrates the greatest likelihood of achieving the next phase of growth.

Nominees are:
• Airoha Technology Corp.
• D2Audio
• Enpiron, Inc.
• Frontier Silicon
• Open-Silicon, Inc.

Favorite Fabless Picks - Semiconductor financial analysts from top-tier firms select their favorite fabless company for this award. The analysts base their decision on historical, as well as projected data, such as stock price, earnings per share, revenue forecasts and product performance.

Nominees from Kalpesh Kapadia of C.E. Unterberg, Towbin are:
• M-Systems
• Trident Microsystems, Inc.
• SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc.

Nominees from Mark Edelstone of Morgan Stanley are:
• Atheros Communications, Inc.
• Broadcom Corporation
• NVIDIA Corporation

Outstanding Financial Performance by Public and Private Fabless Companies – Companies that doubled either revenue or net-income over eight consecutive quarters ending September 2004 are eligible to receive awards for their outstanding financial performance. Winners for these awards will be announced at the event.

Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award – The Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award recognizes individuals, such as its namesake, Dr. Morris Chang, for their outstanding achievements and unique contributions to the fabless sector, exemplifying how their vision and global leadership has transformed and elevated the entire semiconductor industry. The 2004 award will be presented to Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO, president and co-founder of NVIDIA Corporation.

The 2004 FSA Awards Dinner Celebration will be held on Thursday, December 9, 2004 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, Calif. Event registration begins at 5:00 p.m. The event is preceded by a cocktail reception starting at 5:30 p.m., followed by the dinner and awards ceremony at 7:00 p.m., which includes featured entertainer Dana Carvey.

The event is made possible through the support of this year’s title sponsor, UMC, and sponsors AMI Semiconductor; Amkor Technology Inc.; ASE Group; ATI Technologies; Broadcom Corporation; C.E. Unterberg, Towbin; Cadence Design Systems; Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing; CMP Media; Conexant; Ernst & Young; Jazz Semiconductor; Marvell; Morgan Stanley; NVIDIA; Oracle; Qualcomm CDMA Technologies; Reed Electronics Group; Synopsys; TSMC; Virage Logic and Xilinx.

Reservations for the 2004 FSA Awards Dinner Celebration can be made at http://www.fsa.org/awardsdinner/.

About the Fabless Semiconductor Association:
The FSA is the voice of the global fabless business model. Incorporated in 1994, the Association positively impacts the growth and return on invested capital of this business model to enhance the environment for innovation. The FSA provides a platform for meaningful global collaboration between fabless companies and their partners; provides members with timely research and resources; and identifies, debates, and discusses business and technical issues. FSA members include fabless companies and their supply chain and service partners and represent more than 21 countries spanning North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. www.fsa.org