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December 1, 2003 RELEASE

Release

IC Insights' McClean Report 2004 Forecasts the Top 30
Fabless IC Suppliers to Grow 23% in 2003
SanDisk, ATI, Silicon Laboratories, Marvell, and Novatek
Each Forecast to Grow More than 60% in 2003

Scottsdale, Arizona --- December 1, 2003 --- IC Insights today released its forecast for the 2003 ranking of worldwide top 30 fabless IC suppliers (Figure 1). The numbers are for IC sales only and do not include discrete semiconductor revenues.

Fabless IC suppliers in total are forecast to increase their sales by 23 percent in 2003, seven points greater than the expected overall IC market growth of 16 percent. As shown, six fabless companies are forecast to have 2003 IC sales of greater than $1.0 billion.

Of the 30 leading fabless companies, 20 are headquartered in the U.S., 6 in Taiwan, and 4 in Canada. Interestingly, there are no European or Japanese companies in the ranking. Melexis, a Belgian company, is the largest European fabless IC supplier with forecasted 2003 sales of $150 million. It appears that the fabless/foundry business model has not significantly caught on in Europe and Japan, and, in IC Insights opinion, is unlikely to do so in the near future.

With Nvidia’s IC sales forecast to decline 4 percent in 2003, Qualcomm is expected to increase its lead as the number one fabless IC supplier, registering over $2.5 billion in sales. As a result of the booming flash memory market, SanDisk is forecast the display the highest 2003 top 30 fabless IC growth rate with an 89 percent surge. In contrast, with a 35 percent drop, Cirrus Logic is forecast to show the steepest IC sales decline in 2003. Interestingly, Cirrus Logic was ranked as the 6th largest fabless IC supplier in 2000, 13th in 2002, and is now forecast to drop to the 27th position in 2003.

One company that is expected to move up significantly in the fabless IC company rankings for 2004 is Conexant. In 1Q04, Conexant and GlobespanVirata are planning to merge, keeping the Conexant name. This merged company will have sales of over $1.0 billion and would have been ranked as the 7th largest fabless IC supplier in 2003.

Overall, fabless IC suppliers (and the IC foundries that serve them) are becoming a larger force in the total IC industry. In 2000, fabless IC company sales accounted for less than 10 percent of the total IC market (9.6 percent). However, in 2003, fabless IC suppliers are forecast to represent almost 15 percent of worldwide IC sales. Moreover, IC Insights forecasts that in 2007, fabless IC companies will command a 21 percent share of the total IC market.

Figure 1

IC Insights’ new McClean Report 2004 will be released in January. This 700-page report covers numerous aspects of the IC industry including individual IC product markets (e.g., DRAMs, ASICs, etc.), IC capacity and capital spending trends, IC company rankings, as well as IC technology and packaging analyses. Single-user copies of the report (binder or CD-ROM) are only $1,990, with company-wide use licenses also available.

About IC Insights

IC Insights, Inc., based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is dedicated to providing high-quality, cost-effective market research for the integrated circuit industry. Founded in 1997, IC Insights offers coverage of global economic trends, IC market forecasts, capital spending and fab capacity trends, product market details, and technology trends, as well as complete IC company profiles and evaluations of emerging markets for ICs.