NEWS BRIEFS

Santa Clara, CA — NEC Electronics Inc. (NECEL) announced details of a new organizational structure that builds on previous initiatives designed to realize a leadership position in the system-on-a-chip (SOC) marketplace.

The former system integration business and microprocessor/microcontroller business are now consolidated under J.J. Yamaguchi, vice president of the new System LSI Division. The new structure benefits customers in the SOC arena by giving NECEL more flexibility to quickly respond to their needs by delivering a clear path to customization. Yamaguchi will report directly to Hiro Hashimoto, NECEL’s president and chief executive officer.

NECEL’s unique approach to SOC can provide customers with a single source for the lifetime of their design, reducing design time and cost between generations” said Hashimoto. “The new organization ensures NECEL can offer a wide-range of SOC solutions, from standard products to fully customized application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). With these choices, customers can go to market quickly with their specific price/performance and time-to-market considerations and continue to customize their design in future generations”

As part of its charter, the System LSI Division has expanded its market segment focus to include the automotive and Windows CE markets, as well as the previously announced communications, consumer, PC and PC peripherals markets. These marketing and engineering groups bring system-level expertise and understanding to key vertical market segments. Under the new structure, customer needs can be more accurately anticipated by each group’s thorough understanding of each vertical marketplace. The market segment groups are responsible for developing long-term views of directions in specific segments, and defining and developing application-specific standard products (ASSPs) and more customized application-specific custom products (ASCP) to meet the needs of the targeted markets.

Also as part of the new structure, the marketing and sales of memory, flat-panel displays and electronic components are now consolidated under Mike Despotes, senior vice president of sales and component marketing. Despotes will also report to Hashimoto. The goal of this consolidation is to channel all commodity product sales and marketing through a streamlined organization that can focus on responding to its customer base more quickly.

“The separation of standard commodity products from SOC products brings customers the right level of support for their design and business needs by allowing NECEL to establish two very different infrastructures, one to leverage SOC strategy, and the other to continue the success NECEL has enjoyed in the memory, flat-panel display and electronic component markets,” said Hashimoto.

A new U.S. Technology Center has also been formed to centralize the research and development of advanced-microprocessors such as NEC’s MIPS-RISC VR Series, NEC’s proprietary V800 Series, mixed signal products and microprocessor cores. Reporting to M. Matsuda, acting vice president, the Center provides the infrastructure necessary to support SOC development. The Technology Foundation Division, a subgroup of the U.S. Technology Center, created in 1998, remains focused on developing advanced electronic design environments, high-performance packaging, improved process technology and new core libraries. Matsuda also reports to Hashimoto.

The organizational structure of the U.S. Technology Center mirrors that of NEC Corporation’s Japan Technology Center and European Technology Center. Having global technology centers allows NEC to share information worldwide in technology, packaging, and electronic design automation, all of which contribute to the efficient development of SOC solutions.

For further information visit http://www.nec.com/

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