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Spansion Expands Global Engineering Network With New Design Center in Suzhou, China

Posted on: Thursday, 3 August 2006, 18:00 CDT

SUZHOU, China and SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Spansion Inc. , the world's largest pure-play provider of Flash memory solutions, announced today that it has expanded its global engineering network with a new integrated circuit (IC) design center located in Suzhou, China. Strategically located near many high-profile consumer electronics companies and within Spansion's existing Suzhou manufacturing facility, the center will enable Spansion to leverage regional design expertise and rapidly respond to the rising demand for Spansion(TM) MirrorBit(R) and Logic-on-Flash solutions in Asia. The Suzhou center becomes part of Spansion's growing network of design centers and specialized centers of excellence, which now includes sites in eight locations around the globe.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060118/SFW077LOGO )

"Establishing the Suzhou center will position Spansion to more effectively serve the rapidly expanding consumer electronics market in Asia," said Bertrand Cambou, president and chief executive officer of Spansion. "By working closely with the region's complementary hardware and software suppliers, as well as end customers, we will have the opportunity to develop sophisticated system-level solutions that reduce cost, time-to-market and design complexity. We believe this will unleash greater innovation and differentiation in end products, while increasing the value that Spansion brings to the market."

The center will initially house a team of 10 engineers dedicated to developing system-on-chip (SoC) solutions that integrate Spansion MirrorBit Flash memory with logic. Spansion plans to grow the facility to 50 engineers within three years, and expand system and software engineering resources. The center is expected to be fully operational by mid 2007.

Pern Shaw, a 30-year industry veteran with extensive IC and design management expertise, will head up the new site. As director of engineering for Motorola, Pern successfully created and operated a similar design center in the Suzhou area. Most recently, he was chief technology officer for China Core Technologies.

About Spansion's Network

Spansion's global design network includes seven additional design centers and specialized centers of excellence around the world, including:

-- Austin, TX -- Also the location of one of Spansion's flagship manufacturing plants, Fab 25, the design team in Texas focuses on driver and platform software development, as well as developing solutions that integrate Spansion MirrorBit Flash memory with logic. -- Beijing -- Home to some of the world's largest handset makers, Spansion's China design team assists partners in developing system reference designs. The site has developed demonstration and benchmarking platforms for system-level Flash verification. -- Munich -- Located near many of the world's leading automotive manufacturers and electronics OEMs, Spansion's Munich facility is the company's global center of excellence for the development of automotive solutions. -- Paris -- Spansion's European headquarters also serve as the company's global center of excellence for developing security standards and technologies. -- Seoul -- A leading center for the development of mobile systems, the city of Seoul is the home of Spansion's Korea site. The design team works with OEMs and ODMs to optimize subsystem performance using Spansion(TM) Flash memory. -- Sunnyvale -- The company's primary headquarters in Silicon Valley includes a team dedicated to hardware and software verification at the system level. -- Kawasaki -- The Spansion engineering team in Japan conducts system- level engineering and develops custom hardware and software for platform designers. About Spansion

Spansion is the world's largest pure-play provider of Flash memory solutions, dedicated to enabling, storing and protecting digital content in the wireless, automotive, networking and consumer electronics markets. Spansion, previously a joint venture of AMD and Fujitsu, is the largest company in the world dedicated exclusively to developing, designing, and manufacturing Flash memory products and systems. For more information, visit http://www.spansion.com/.

Cautionary Statement

This release contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that the forward-looking statements in this release involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the company's current expectations, including the possibility that demand for the company's Flash memory products will be lower than currently expected; that customer acceptance of MirrorBit technology will not continue to increase; that the company will not achieve its current product and technology introduction or implementation schedules; and that the company will not be able to obtain sufficient manufacturing capacity to meet demand for its products. The company urges investors to review in detail the risks and uncertainties in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to the company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 26, 2006. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information included in this press release.

Spansion, the Spansion logo, MirrorBit, and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Spansion LLC. Other names used are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060118/SFW077LOGOAP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

Spansion Inc.

CONTACT: Michele Landry of Spansion Public Relations, +1-408-242-7539 ormichele.landry@spansion.com

Web site: http://www.spansion.com/

Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall

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