The Setting up a Centre for Microelectronics Technology, Development & Business Acquisition in Silicon Valley, USA

Santa Clara, California, USA, 9 February 2007:

MARA was represented by the Director General, YBhg Dato’ Nam bin Marthinin whilst Dr. Ivan Pesic, the company’s President/CEO signed on behalf of Silvaco. ICmic was represented by the company’s President/CEO, Encik Abd Rashid Munir.

“This is yet another milestone to accelerate the creation of more technopreneurs for the country. The centre will provide the product development, marketing channel and sales distributions from ICmic, ICmic-UniKL Academy and techopreneurs from Malaysia.” said Abd Rashid after the signing ceremony. “We are very excited that MARA and Silvaco are taking significant roles in this process”.

ICmic with its leadership in IC design will provide the core in the design expertise and Silvaco will provide the global technology and business opportunities. MARA, in conjunction with the ICmic-UniKL Academy, is to support the placement of selected apprentices in those centres. This will offer real-world experience on technology development, technical marketing and business exposure to enhance technical and business know-how i.e. the key elements to become highly competent professional or technopreneur.

YB Dato’ Seri Mohamed Khaled expressed his support to this action-oriented initiative in creating technoprenuers and providing access to the global market.

Dr Ivan Pesic who has successfully created a world-class company with offices in several locations in USA, Europe and Asia, has committed to providing the partnership in technology development and market channel.

The Centre will focus on the strategic microelectronics technology development and business acquisition as an extension to the ICmic-UniKL Academy currently being set-up in Malaysia. The academy emphasis is on microelectronics competency development in the country, particularly for Bumiputera in producing integrated-circuit (IC) and electronics products. The initial location for the centres is planned to be in the Silicon Valley, USA and Cambridge, UK, whilst other locations are also being considered.

In addition, MARA with its comprehensive entrepreneurs and start-up facilities will render comprehensive support to realise the Government aspiration of seeing higher value-add activities in this country and also clear a path for global participation.

IC and electronics products are very important for Malaysia to position itself in global economy. Competitive products will create entrepreneurs, job-opportunities, upstream and downstream support activities and most importantly the spin-off companies. The centre can then become strategic for the entrepreneurs to test, market and launch the products at various global markets. The resultant opportunities are enormous in this US$250 billion semiconductor industry.

About ICmic

IC MICROSYSTEMS Sdn. Bhd. (www.icmic.com) is a leading IC [integrated circuit] Design Company based in Cyberjaya, Malaysia with an office in Santa Clara, California. It is a Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) status company and has a global customer base with proven products performance in costs and technology. The company's product portfolio also includes world-class Mixed-Signal IC's in the form of Digital to Analog Converters IC's, fixed-line Phone IC's, RFIC's and Serial EEPROM.

About UniKL

Universiti Kuala Lumpur (www.unikl.edu.my) upon receiving approval from the Ministry of Education on 17th of June 2002 was registered as a full-fledged university on 20th of August 2002. It was initially known as Universiti Teknikal MARA but later changed to its current name. This is upon realising the potential and significance of the university to the nation and to this region. The change of name is also an effort to promote Kuala Lumpur as a centre of education, research and training excellence. UniKL is managed by Universiti Teknikal MARA Sdn. Bhd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) - a government agency under the Ministry of Entrepreneur and Co-operative Development.

The university was founded with the purpose of providing world standard technical education and training opportunities in order to qualify technical specialist for Malaysian. These technical specialists will be key players in the development of Malaysia into an advanced and industrialised nation in the global k-economy. Apart from Malaysians, the university also opens its doors to foreign students to study at its campuses.

About Silvaco

Silvaco (www.silvaco.com), headquartered in Santa Clara, California was founded in 1984. The company has been a leading vendor of technology computer aided design (TCAD) simulation software since 1987. Since 1987, Silvaco expanded its presence to eight international sales and support offices. In 2004, Silvaco spun out Simucad Design Automation to focus on electronic design automation (EDA). Silvaco delivers its proven Stanford-based TCAD products and supports them with experienced engineers to provide complete semiconductor process and device simulation solutions.