Tensilica Inc. Announces Strategic Investment by Fujitsu

Update: Cadence Completes Acquisition of Tensilica (Apr 24, 2013)

Santa Clara, CA. - September 21, 2010 - Tensilica, Inc. today announced that Fujitsu Limited has made a strategic investment in Tensilica. Tensilica is a major semiconductor IP (intellectual property) supplier specializing in dataplane processor (DPU) cores, which are a combination of CPUs (central processing unit) and DSPs (digital signal processor) that can be rapidly customized to provide 10-100x the performance of standard CPUs and DSPs. Tensilica's DPUs are widely used in system-on-chip (SOC) designs for signal processing in mobile wireless, home entertainment and other applications.

"After working with Tensilica on the development of advanced performance on our mobile terminals we realized how important Tensilica's DPU foundation has become to our engineers," stated Minoru Sakata, President, Mobile Phones Unit, Fujitsu Limited. "Tensilica's customizable DPUs help us get maximum performance with the lowest possible power in high throughput, signal processing-intensive mobile wireless devices."

"We've been working with the best engineers at Fujitsu for over two years as they've been designing their LTE products for next-generation mobile phones," stated Jack Guedj, Tensilica's President and CEO. "We are honored that Fujitsu has decided to make a strategic investment in Tensilica out of its corporate venture capital fund due to our strong DPU semiconductor IP for LTE baseband modem, audio processing and many other applications in advanced mobile phones. We will be working closely with them to find other chip design projects that can benefit from our technology."

Tensilica's DPUs range from small, micro control and signal processor to powerful benchmark-topping, yet very efficient DSPs. Tensilica has used its own Xtensa DPU foundation to quickly develop and optimize DPUs for audio, baseband and other signal processing applications that have been designed into millions of cellular phone handsets.

About Fujitsu

Fujitsu is a leading provider of ICT-based business solutions for the global marketplace. With approximately 170,000 employees supporting customers in 70 countries, Fujitsu combines a worldwide corps of systems and services experts with highly reliable computing and communications products and advanced microelectronics to deliver added value to customers. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.6 trillion yen (US$50 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010. For more information, please see: www.fujitsu.com.

About Tensilica

Tensilica, Inc. is the leader in customizable dataplane processor IP cores. Dataplane Processor Units (DPUs) combine the best capabilities of CPUs and DSPs while delivering 10 to 100x the performance because they can be customized using Tensilica's automated design tools to meet specific signal processing performance targets. Tensilica's DPUs  power SOC designs at system OEMs and six out of the top 10 semiconductor companies for products including mobile phones, consumer electronics devices (including digital TV, Blu-ray Disc players, broadband set top boxes, digital still cameras and portable media players), computers, and storage, networking and communications equipment. For more information on Tensilica's patented, benchmark-proven DPUs visit www.tensilica.com.