Toshiba, Xilinx Announce Strategic Foundry Relationship, Reach 90nm/300mm Manufacturing Milestone

14 October, 2004


Companies achieve first silicon success,
on track for volume production in Q1 2005

Toshiba Corporation
Xilinx, Inc.

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 system 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.

Press Inquiries

Toshiba Corporation
Tel: 81-3-3457-2105

Xilinx, Inc.
Tel (Japan) : 81-3-5321-7743
Tel (US) : 408 879-7727
E-mail: publicrelations@xilinx.com


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