Tower Semiconductor Strengthens Its Design Center Program with Four New Design Center Partners

Cadence, QThink, QualCore Logic, and SliceX Join Tower's Authorized Design Center Program (TADC) MIGDAL HAEMEK, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 25, 2005-- Tower Semiconductor Ltd. , a premier pure-play independent wafer foundry, today announced a major expansion of the Tower Authorized Design Center (TADC) program, naming Cadence Design Systems, Inc., QThink, QualCore Logic and SliceX as design center partners.

Tower's new design center partners come to the TADC program with proven track records of delivering high-quality IP, libraries, circuit design capabilities and exceptional engineering services. This expansion of the TADC program allows Tower's customers to tap into a full spectrum of design services, including mixed-signal design and ASIC realization flow.

"Achieving predictability of first-time silicon success is paramount in everything we do at Tower," said Rafi Nave, vice president of customer services, Tower Semiconductor. "Our new design center partners passed rigorous qualification criteria, ensuring that customers engaging with Tower Authorized Design Center partners are receiving cutting-edge services from world-class IP and design companies."

The TADC program was created to help Tower's customers accelerate the design-to-silicon process and enhance first-time silicon success. The program links Tower's customers to leading integrated circuit (IC) design firms, IP and library providers with qualified support for the Tower Semiconductor fabrication flow.

About Cadence Design Systems

Cadence is the world's largest supplier of electronic design technologies and engineering services. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and trades on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq under the symbol CDN. More information is available at www.cadence.com.

About QThink

QThink is a full-service IC design services company, where ideas get turned into ICs. QThink designs low-power, high-performance, complex ICs for customers in a number of vertical markets such as wireless, networking and consumer. The company has design centers in San Jose, San Diego and India. More information about QThink is available at www.qthink.com.

About QualCore Logic

QualCore Logic Inc. develops and markets silicon-proven analog/mixed signal and digital IP, provides design implementation services and full turnkey ASIC solutions for systems-on-chip (SoC) designs. More information about QualCore Logic is available at www.qualcorelogic.com.

About SliceX

SliceX is a mixed-signal design center, specializing in analog IP and turnkey custom system solutions. SliceX is a skilled developer of system architectures and custom layout solutions that have been proven leaders in semiconductor, imaging, consumer, medical, and communications industries. More information about SliceX is available at www.slicex.com.

About Tower Semiconductor LTD.

Tower Semiconductor LTD. is a pure-play independent wafer foundry established in 1993. The company manufactures integrated circuits with geometries ranging from 1.0 to 0.13 micron; it also provides complementary technical services and design support. In addition to digital CMOS process technology, Tower offers advanced non-volatile memory solutions, mixed-signal and CMOS image-sensor technologies. To provide world-class customer service, the company maintains two manufacturing facilities: Fab 1 has process technologies from 1.0 to 0.35 micron and can produce up to 16,000 150mm wafers per month. Fab 2 features 0.18 micron and below process technologies, including foundry-standard technology. When fully equipped, Fab 2 is expected to offer full production capacity of 33,000 200mm wafers per month. Tower's Web site is located at www.towersemi.com.

Safe Harbor

This press release includes forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may vary from those projected or implied by such forward-looking statements. A complete discussion of risks and uncertainties that may affect the accuracy of forward-looking statements included in this press release or which may otherwise affect our business is included under the heading "Risk Factors" in our most recent Annual Report on Forms 20-F and 6-K, as were filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Israel Securities Authority.