January 27, 1998
Hitachi to Establish Semiconductor Design/Engineering CompanyHitachi, Ltd. today announced that Hitachi Microcomputer System, Ltd., the Hitachi Group's semiconductor design arm, and Hitachi ULSI Engineering Corp. have signed an agreement under which the two companies would merge on April 1 to create a new company, Hitachi ULSI Systems Co., Ltd. The establishment of the new company would further strengthen Hitachi's system LSI design and developmental capabilities and thereby position the Company to meet the diversifying needs of the semiconductor market. Hitachi ULSI Systems will combine leading-edge technology in the area of memories, microprocessors and microcontrollers with systems technology as it focuses on the design and development of system LSIs based on the SuperH core. A further focus of the new company will be to strengthen Hitachi's systems engineering prowess by accurately gauging market requirements. In terms of the number of design engineers, Hitachi ULSI Systems will rank among Japan's largest semiconductor design corporations. The multimedia era is producing an increasing convergence of computers, communications products and consumer electronic appliances, while at the same time the use of portable information terminals and other such devices is rapidly increasing, generating a massive expansion in the range of applications for semiconductor devices. This is spurring system LSI development work aimed at achieving higher integration densities, higher performance, more functionality, lower power consumption, and the incorporation of system functions to enable semiconductor devices to meet these market requirements. As companies position themselves to meet the challenges of these new markets, they are also recognizing the importance of enhancing their customer response capabilities. The merger will reinforce Hitachi's system LSI design and development capabilities by bringing together Hitachi Microcomputer System, whose main strength is in the area of microprocessor / microcontroller design, and Hitachi ULSI Engineering, whose main strength is in the design of semiconductor memories, and by boosting the number of employees of the new company by about 550 by the year 2000. Hitachi ULSI Systems will play a central role in the strengthening of Hitachi's system LSI operations by reducing the time required to develop system LSI products and providing an environment for software development and, in addition, providing a detailed response to customers' design requirements in a broad range of advanced device sectors in which Hitachi has a strategic product involvement, such as ASICs that combine DRAM and a microprocessor core, F-ZTAT with on- board flash memory, and microprocessors used in smart cards. As a central component of the Hitachi Group's semiconductor design and development operations, the new company will also concentrate on forming a network with Hitachi's overseas design operations, which are Hitachi Micro Systems, Inc. (U.S.), Hitachi Micro Systems Europe Ltd. (U.K.), and Hitachi Micro Systems Asia Ltd. (Singapore), to allow design information to be shared and thereby add a global market perspective to design and development activities. One result will be the development of products more closely tailored to the requirements of the areas in which the products will be used. In an endeavor to seek new design resources, new facilities have been setting up in China and India to take advantage of the excellent software development technology there, as part of a future program to establish a worldwide design organization. Details of merger
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