SMSC---Good for a pt. or two! Standard Microsystems Corporation
Announces That Its Chipsets Will be Fully
Licensed Under Intel's Patents
Business Wire - February 22, 1999 10:29
HAUPPAUGE, NY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 22, 1999--Standard
Microsystems Corporation (NASDAQ:SMSC) announced today that the
various microprocessor chipsets that the company intends to be bringing to
market will be fully licensed under the patents of Intel Corporation.
Speaking for the Company, which is currently the leading supplier of
input/output circuits for the personal computer industry and just recently
entered the microprocessor chipset market, Mr. Paul Richman, Standard
Microsystems Corporation's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer stated:
"In August of 1987, Intel Corporation and Standard Microsystems
Corporation announced that they had entered into an agreement providing
for, among other things, a broad, worldwide, non-exclusive patent cross
license between Intel and SMSC, covering manufacturing processes and
products. That agreement provided for both companies to have access to
the other's patent portfolio. Thus, as part of the agreement, which was
designed to leverage each company's research and development
investments, Intel gained rights to certain SMSC patents and SMSC gained
rights to certain Intel patents. Consequently, as a result of our 1987
agreement with Intel, we can assure our various customers throughout the
world that all products sold by SMSC are, and will be, fully licensed under
the patents of Intel Corporation."
"Recently," Mr. Richman continued, "VIA Technologies, Inc. (VIA) and
Silicon Integrated Systems Corporation (SiS) have each indicated that they
had obtained patent licenses from Intel which, in return for their paying
royalties to Intel, would allow the two companies to manufacture and sell
certain chipset products that would be able to operate with Intel's P6 bus
micro-architecture. In view of these recent announcements by VIA and SiS,
we felt it was important for us to announce to our customer base today that,
as a result of our broad 1987 agreement with Intel, Standard Microsystems
Corporation's chipsets are, and will be, fully licensed under Intel's patents."
In addition to the worldwide, non-exclusive patent cross-licensing
agreement it has with Intel Corporation, Standard Microsystems
Corporation has entered into over thirty five comprehensive patent
cross-licensing agreements with major semiconductor manufacturers around
the world, such as Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), AT&T (Lucent),
Fujitsu, Ltd., Hitachi, Ltd., IBM, ITT Corporation, LG Semicon Co., Ltd.,
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Micron Technology, Inc., National
Semiconductor Corporation, NEC Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co.,
Ltd., Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., SGS-Thomson Microelectronics BV, Sharp
Corporation, Texas Instruments Incorporated, Toshiba Corporation, United
Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) and Winbond Electronics
Corporation. In almost every one of these agreements, the other company
paid, or is continuing to pay, royalties and/or fixed payments to SMSC and
SMSC received a royalty-free license under the patents of the other
company.
About SMSC
Standard Microsystems Corporation (SMSC) is a worldwide supplier of
metal-oxide-semiconductor/very-large-scale-integrated (MOS/VLSI)
circuits for the personal computer industry. SMSC has the leading position
in input/output (I/O) integrated circuits for PCs with over 120 million units
shipped and, additionally, supplies integrated circuits for PC Connectivity,
local area networks, embedded networking, and microprocessor core logic
chipset technologies. The Company also operates a wafer foundry that
specializes in MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) devices. SMSC is
a leading supplier of MEMS, with more than 20 million devices delivered to
date.
Standard Microsystems is based in Hauppauge, New York and maintains
offices worldwide, including locations in North America, Asia, Europe and
Japan. SMSC operates engineering, marketing and sales centers in San
Jose, CA; Westborough, MA; Hauppauge, NY and Austin, TX. More
information about the Company is available on the World Wide Web at
www.smsc.com.
Standard Microsystems is a registered trademark and SMSC is a
trademark of Standard Microsystems Corporation. Product names and
company names are the trademarks of their respective holders.
CONTACT: Editorial Contact:
Paul Richman
Chairman of the Board and
Chief Executive Officer
Voice: 516-434-2803; Fax: 516-273-5550
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