Intel Acquires West Bay Semiconductor

SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 10 -- Intel Corp. announced this week it has acquired West Bay Semiconductor Inc. in a cash-for-assets transaction. West Bay Semiconductor, based in Vancouver, Canada, designs high-speed and high-density networking chips that enable voice and data transport over synchronous optical networking/synchronous digital hierarchy (SONET/SDH)-based optical networks. Financial terms were not disclosed.

West Bay Semiconductor's advanced chip architecture enables high-density designs for networking chips. Intel said it intends to combine this architectural and design efficiency with its 90-nm silicon manufacturing process, which it said will reduce the cost, power consumption and complexity of optical networking equipment that uses these chips.

The acquisition of West Bay Semiconductor broadens Intel's portfolio of 2.5 Gb/s and lower networking chips. The portfolio currently includes network processors and physical layer devices. Intel said this expanded product line, combined with Intel's portfolio of 10 Gb/s networking chips and optical transceivers, will enable it to offer system vendors a single architecture and software platform to use in designing and building telecom equipment.

Most of West Bay Semiconductor's employees will join the Intel Optical Products Group (OPG). OPG is part of the Intel Communications Group, which designs and manufactures optoelectronic components and optical subsystems for the long haul core, metropolitan and enterprise market segments.

For more information, visit: www.intel.com