TOSHIBA AND TESSERA ANNOUNCE INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY LICENSING AGREEMENT

13 September, 2000


Agreement Will Expand Tessera's Product Offerings and Enable Broad Availability
of Toshiba's Chip-Scale Packaging Solution

TOKYO - Sept. 13, 2000 -- Toshiba Corporation and Tessera Inc., a leading provider and licensor of chip-scale packaging (CSP) technology, today announced they have signed an innovative technology licensing agreement that will enable Tessera to act as the exclusive licensor of Toshiba's wire-bonded version of Tessera's μBGA(R) chip-scale package. Based on Tessera's core patents, the wire-bonded μBGA package is currently used by Toshiba in its main memory products (64Mb SDRAM and 128/144/256/288Mb Rambus DRAM), which ship not only in PCs, but also in the new Sony PlayStation(R)2 game console.

The agreement represents an important milestone for both companies: it is a unique opportunity for Toshiba's Semiconductor group to appoint another company to exclusively license one of its packaging processes for sublicensing to the rest of the industry, and it will be the first packaging process licensed by Tessera that was not fully developed internally. This arrangement marks the first step in Tessera's strategy to broadly license and standardize packages that its licensees have developed using Tessera's patent portfolio.

"Toshiba licensed Tessera's intellectual property and used it to develop an innovative derivative of our μBGA CSP," said Bruce McWilliams, president and CEO of Tessera. "Through our new relationship, Tessera will enable Toshiba to leverage its R&D investment by licensing the wire-bonded μBGA technology to Tessera's broad, worldwide customer base of semiconductor manufacturers and assemblers and helping to standardize this CSP technology. In return, Toshiba is making it possible for Tessera to offer a wider range of packaging solutions to its current and future licensees."

By expanding Tessera's product offerings, the licensing agreement will enable the company to provide its licensees with a broad range of packaging processes that meet the needs of current and next generation applications that require CSP technology. The design of the wire-bonded μBGA package makes the technology well suited to a wide range of semiconductor applications, and also allows assemblers to leverage the well-established wire-bonding infrastructure. The wire-bonded μBGA package is currently available to all of Tessera's licensees.

"Tessera is one of the few companies in the world that has the infrastructure required to broadly license advanced packaging technology, as well as a services organization that can enable assemblers to achieve production capability as quickly as possible," said Shigeo Koguchi, vice president of the Memory Division at Toshiba Corporation Semiconductor Company. "The agreement creates an opportunity for Toshiba to broadly introduce our technology to the world, and for our current material and equipment vendors to expand their business -- which creates a more cost-competitive standard supporting infrastructure for our wire-bonded μBGA package while providing second sourcing for our internal test and assembly business. Additionally, our wire-bonded μBGA technology enables assemblers to use existing wire-bonding equipment."

Terms of Agreement

According to the terms of the agreement, Toshiba will transfer technical and engineering information related to the manufacture of the wire-bonded μBGA chip-scale package to Tessera, and also provide technical assistance to Tessera during the transfer. Tessera will become the exclusive licensor of Toshiba's wire-bonded μBGA process, except for a few on-going second sourcing partners, and will offer this technology to its licensee base of semiconductor manufacturers and assemblers in the form of expanded licensing, technical training, consulting and licensee services. Tessera will endeavor to drive the wire-bonded μBGA technology as an alternative standard to Tessera's μBGA package for Rambus DRAM, SDRAM and DDR SDRAM.

About Toshiba

Toshiba Corporation is a leader in information and communications systems, electronic components, consumer products, and power systems. The company's integration of these wide-ranging capabilities assures its position as a leading company in semiconductor, LCD and other electronic devices. Toshiba has 191,000 employees worldwide and annual sales of over $50 (US) billion. Visit Toshiba's website at http://www.toshiba.co.jp.

About Tessera

Tessera is a leading provider of proprietary chip-scale packaging technology that addresses the accelerating demand for performance and miniaturization in wireless communications, Internet access, computing and consumer electronics. Tessera's technology enables the semiconductor industry to overcome fundamental issues in performance, reliability and size.

Tessera currently licenses its advanced packaging technology to over 30 assembly and semiconductor companies, including Amkor, AMD, ASE, ChipMOS, ChipPAC, EEMS, Hitachi, Hyundai, Infineon, Intel, IPAC, LG, Meicer, Mitsui High-tec, Samsung, Shinko, Sony, SPIL, ST Microelectronics and Toshiba. Tessera is based in San Jose, Calif.

EDITORIAL CONTACTS

Paul Barbieri
The Hoffman Agency, for Tessera
(408) 286-2611
pbarbieri@hoffman.com

Midori Suzuki
Toshiba Corporation
+81-3-3457-2105
midori.suzuki@toshiba.co.jp


Tessera, μBGA and the Tessera logo are registered trademarks of Tessera, Inc.
Toshiba and the Toshiba logo are registered trademarks of Toshiba Corporation.
All other brand and product names may be trademarks of their respective companies.


Information in the press releases, including product prices and specifications, content of services and contact information, is current on the date of the press announcement,but is subject to change without prior notice.