Sarnoff Expands License in ESD Solution for Toshiba

Business Wire, June 4, 2008

TOKYO & GISTEL, Belgium -- Sarnoff Europe (www.sarnoffeurope.com) today announced its expanded license partnership with Toshiba Corporation (http://www.toshiba.co.jp/index.htm) in Sarnoff's TakeCharge([R])electrostatic discharge (ESD) solution.

Sarnoff has developed ESD protection solutions for five consecutive generations, ranging from 180 nanometers (nm) to 45nm, of Toshiba CMOS process technologies. Under the new license agreement, solutions for 32nm and beyond CMOS technologies are expected to be developed and existing and future solutions are available to Toshiba's expanding third party customer business.

"Using Sarnoff's ESD solutions we significantly lower our technical and business risks and expenses," said Kenji Numata, Senior Manager, System LSI Design Department of Toshiba's Semiconductor Company. "This makes TakeCharge our standard choice solution for ESD protection, and we offer its unique benefits to our customers.

"Reuse of TakeCharge IP in Toshiba's 180nm to 65nm ASIC products has consistently resulted in robust Charged Device Model (CDM), Human Body Model (HBM) and Machine Model (MM) performance."

"We are dedicated to Toshiba's business success in 32nm and beyond, and in the arena of COT and foundry services," Koen Verhaege, Executive Director of Sarnoff Europe said. "The expanded licensing agreement will enable us to further strengthen the technical collaboration with Toshiba's ESD team in the years to come."

Sarnoff's ESD design solutions are product proven and ported across eight CMOS generations as well as high voltage, BiCMOS, SOI and BCD processes. TakeCharge's 0.5um to 65nm product proven ESD protection is licensed for a broad spectrum of applications such as ASIC's, FPGA's, LCD drivers, power, consumer and communications IC's.

TakeCharge licensees include leading IDM, fabless and foundry IC producers worldwide, including Toshiba, Altera, Infineon, ST Microelectronics, Ricoh, OKI, Sony, Fujitsu, Renesas, Matsushita, Seiko Epson, NJR, PMC-Sierra, ON Semiconductor, AMIS, RedMere, Nanotech, Gennum, Actel, CamSemi, THine, Inphi, Tower and others.

As an ESD design solution provider, Sarnoff Europe is a TSMC Design Service Alliance (DCA) and a UMC IP Alliance partner.

About Sarnoff Corporation

Sarnoff Corporation (www.sarnoff.com) delivers vision, video and semiconductor technology innovations that empower government and commercial clients to see/sense, understand and control complex environments. Founded in 1942 as RCA Laboratories, Sarnoff makes continuous breakthroughs in real-time video processing for defense, security and surveillance; ICs, lasers, imaging and sensing devices; high-performance networking and wireless communications. Sarnoff is a subsidiary of SRI International.

About Sarnoff Europe

Sarnoff Europe (www.sarnoffeurope.com) headquartered in Gistel, Belgium, is a subsidiary company of Sarnoff Corporation. Sarnoff Europe assumes worldwide responsibility for the development and commercialization of Sarnoff's Takecharge[R] on-chip ESD protection IP.