Terms of the deal with Sony were not disclosed. Under the terms of the deal with Winbond, the Taiwanese chip maker has signed a five-year, royalty-bearing patent licensing agreement with Mosaid.

The agreement grants Winbond a license to use Mosaid's patents in all DRAM products, according to the Ottawa-based company. "This agreement is an important achievement for Mosaid since Winbond Electronics is our first running royalty term licensee, as well as the first Taiwanese company to license our patents," said George Cwynar, president and CEO of Mosaid, in a statement.

Mosaid believes all companies that manufacture mainstream DRAM products, including single and double-data-rate (DDR) SDRAM, Rambus Inc.'s RDRAM, use its patented circuit technology.

There are currently a total of 12 semiconductor manufacturers on notice for patent infringement and Mosaid is engaged in licensing discussions with several of these companies. To date, Mosaid has signed eight patent licensing agreements with Fujitsu, NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, Oki Electric, Matsushita Electric, Sony, and Winbond Electronics.

Separately, Mosaid today said it has reduced its workforce by 36%, or 58 employees, due to weak business conditions. The company, which will take a $6 million restructuring charge, also plans to lower R&D spending for the development of its content addressable memory (CAM) products.

Mosaid today eported that revenue for its fourth fiscal quarter is expected to increase to between $11 million and $11.5 million, up from $9.8 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2002.

The company expects a net loss for the fourth fiscal 2003 quarter, excluding special charges, of $1.5 million to $2 million, or 15 cents to 20 cents per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $3.2 million, or 31 cents per diluted share in the same period last year.

The company said it will continue to develop and sell its ATE lines for memory applications. "However, given the current size of the market opportunity we have reduced our level of CAM R&D," Cwynar said. "We will capitalize on the competitive strengths of our current and announced product offerings, and despite the restructuring, we remain fully capable of delivering on both near-term and future customer requirements for larger CAMs."

By: DocMemory
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