Fairchild Semiconductor buys I-cube

Fairchild Semiconductor announced it has agreed to acquire I-Cube of Campbell
in Silicon Valley. The company is a leading designer of cross-point switches
critical to Internet infrastructure, data communications, telecommunications,
broadcast video, test equipment and digital signal processing.

"I-Cube's technology will add a further dimension to Fairchild's
Interface portfolio, providing the switch-in opportunities for Switch Fabric
Interconnect (SFI)," said Fairchild CEO Kirk Pond. I-Cube is a leading
developer of advanced integrated circuits for digital switching applications.
The Digital Crosspoint Switch (DCS) ICs are high-density, high-bandwidth,
flexible switches, which allow designers to consistently achieve high
performance. This is critical in telecom products such as optical network (SONET/SDH)
equipment, wide area network, multi-service switching systems, new generations
of integrated access devices and SFI backplane solutions. I-Cube's products will
add to Fairchild's product offering for use in test equipment, broadcast video
servers, or other high-performance switching systems.

"The I-Cube acquisition will provide the foundation for Fairchild's
entry into the opportunity-laden SFI segment. We're excited to build this
competency at Fairchild, using switches that offer the highest port count and
lowest power per port in the industry. The technology enables larger, more
cost-effective arrays than competing approaches," said W.T. Greer, senior
vice president and general manager of Fairchild's Interface and Logic Group.
"We look forward to unveiling our product roadmap in the next few
weeks."