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Cypress Semiconductor Corporation

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FY2014 Annual Report · Cypress Semiconductor Corporation
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2014 ANNUAL REPORTCypress + Spansion = No. 3 in AutomotiveThe Cypress-Spansion merger opens doors at top new customers and positions New Cypress as the No. 3 provider of automotive MCUs and memories with $500 million in revenue and as a preferred supplier to the top 25 global OEMs.INFOTAINMENTVolkswagen Honda Mercedes Tesla Nissan BMW  InfinitiHVAC CONTROLToyota Fiat Mitsubishi AudiGM Honda Subaru PeugeotHyundai  Mazda  Volvo  Land RoverPOWERTRAINVolkswagen BMWAudiINSTRUMENT CLUSTERSToyota  Ford  Mercedes SubaruGM Nissan Mazda   Peugeot Volkswagen Honda Mitsubishi  DaihatsuHyundai  Suzuki TATA  LamborghiniEVENT DATA RECORDERSHyundai DIAGNOSTICS AND PERFORMANCE MONITORINGHyundaiBODY ELECTRONICSToyota GM BODY ELECTRONICS MODULES, LIGHTING AND PERIPHERAL ECUsToyota Nissan MazdaGM Honda MitsubishiHyundai  Suzuki IsuzuFord Renault SmartEV/HEVToyotaHondaDRIVERASSISTANCEGMVolkswagenBMWAudi CYPRESS+SPANSION: 1+1 = 31ST IN SRAM, 1ST IN NOR FLASH AND 3RD  IN AUTOMOTIVE MCUs & MEMORYThe First Annual Report of New...2014 ANNUAL REPORTYOU ARE AUTHORIZED TO READ THIS REPORT1010101001010100100010010101001000010100111101010100101101010011110101010010111010101001001011001010100001110110010010010010001001010011110101010010111010101001001001001010100001000110010010010010101001101010010111010101001001001100101000110010010010010001The FPG1 fingerprint reading system will enter the $460 million market in the second quarter.101000100101010010000101001111010101001010101010100100100100101010001001010100100001010011110101010010111010101001001001001000111010101001010100100010010101001000010100111101010100101101010011110101010010111010101001001001001010100001000110010010010010001001010011010101010010111010101001001001001010100001000110010010010010001001101010010111010101001001001100001000110010010010010001The TrueTouch® fingerprint reader chip is here!The Last Annual Report of Old...Cypress Semiconductor Corp. 2014 Annual Report and 2014 Proxy StatementCYPRESS + SPANSION: WORLDWIDE LEADER IN SRAM AND NOR FLASHThe merger will make New Cypress the industry’s high-performance memory leader with the broadest portfolio, as shown in the table below. Cypress is the worldwide leader in SRAMs and nonvolatile RAMs (NVRAMs) and Spansion is the worldwide leader in NOR flash. The typical embedded system includes flash, SRAM and DRAM memories, so New Cypress will have a leadership position in two of these three critical system memories. The table below also provides the parameters by which each Cypress memory type is judged to have best-in-class performance.Cypress offers a complete and growing portfolio of solutions that enable customers to design wearable electronics with integrated sensors. These solutions offer an intuitive user interface, ultra-low power and the industry’s smallest form factors. Cypress gained significant traction in the wearables market in 2014 with many new design wins, some of which are shown below.TrueTouch® and CapSense® touch controllers – The industry’s lowest power, smallest size and best waterproofing.PSoC® Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE) solutions – Ultra-low-power wireless connectivity with low-power analog for biometrics.PRoC™ BLE solutions – Ultra-low-power wireless connectivity with CapSense for a natural UI.Low-Power (MoBL®) Asynchronous SRAMs – Memories that buffer data to reduce radio usage and extend battery life.F-RAMs™ – High-reliability memories that store the most vital data—“black box” data—with the lowest possible energy.CYPRESS + SPANSION: A LEADER IN SOLUTIONS FOR WEARABLESWearable electronics are everywhere: designer smartwatches, fitness and activity monitors, cameras, smart glasses and medical products such as hearing aids and wearable patches. The wearables market is expected to be $1.5 billion in 2015, growing to $19.0 billion in 2018 at a CAGR of 88.7%. With its ultra-low-power microcontrollers, memories and capacitive touch-sensing controllers, New Cypress is uniquely equipped to compete in this market, where performance = low power. New Cypress Has the Broadest Portfolio and the Highest-Performance Memories for Embedded SystemsNew Cypress’s Broad Portfolio of Wearables Solutions Enables Next-Generation End ProductsProduct Category New           Competitors            Performance Advantage Cypress Renesas ISSI Micron FujitsuQDR®-IV synchronous SRAM      Highest RTR (random transaction rate) 2.1 GT/sAsynchronous SRAM with ECC1      Highest-reliability fast SRAM <0.1 FIT3MicroPower SRAM      Lowest-power SRAM (standby current) 1.5 µASerial F-RAM™2      Lowest-power F-RAM (standby current) 100 µAParallel nvSRAM      Fastest NVRAM 20 ns AGIGARAM®      Highest-density NVRAM 16 GBHyperFlash™ memory      Highest-read-throughput NOR flash 333 MBpsSerial NOR flash      Fastest read, program and erase  160 MBps       high-density SPI flash Parallel NOR flash      Fastest parallel NOR flash read 90 MBps SLC NAND flash      Fastest low-density NAND flash read 25 nse.MMC NAND flash      Highest-reliability high-density   0 FIT3       NAND flash (data loss) SRAMNVRAMNORFlashNANDFlashCYPRESSSPANSION                          Product Category Smartwatches Activity Hearing Wearable Smart    Monitors Aids Patches GlassesAnalog Front End PSoC® 4 PSoC® 3System-on-Chip PSoC 4 BLE PSoC 5LPWireless PSoC BLECapacitive-Sensing CapSense® controllersController Touch Controller TrueTouch® touchscreen controllersTrackpad Trackpad moduleExternal Memory MicroPower SRAM Nonvolatile F-RAMExternal Memory Nonvolatile NOR flashMicrocontroller FM0+ FM3Power Management Energy-harvesting power supplyCYPRESSSPANSIONMetrics1. Error-Correcting Code. 2. Ferroelectric RAMs. 3. Failures In Time (billion hours)WINNING IN THE WEARABLE ELECTRONICS REVOLUTIONENABLING THE USB TYPE-C STANDARD: POWER & DATA FROM A SINGLE PLUGHow convenient would it be to have a standard port to connect your laptop, smartphone, tablet and peripherals that provided them all with power and data regardless of the product brands you choose? New USB Type-C standard connectors deliver just that. Backed by Apple and Intel, the standard is gaining rapid support among top-tier PC makers, enabling slim industrial designs, easy-to-use connectors and cables, and the ability to transmit protocols other than USB. Type-C also integrates USB Power Delivery (USB-PD), a new USB standard that increases power delivery from 7.5 W to 100 W.The second-generation EZ-PD™ CCG2 is the world’s smallest integrated USB Type-C port controller, measuring only 3.3 mm2 in its chip-scale package.The communications port determines the thickness of a laptop PC, as shown in the image above of a standard 4.5-mm-high USB Type-A connector. The 2.4-mm USB Type-C connector is not only half as thick, but it also eliminates the need for the power and DisplayPort plugs.Basis PeakSmartwatchBM Innnovations’ Under Armour Fitness WatchFitbit SurgeFitness WatchSamsung Gear SSmartwatchCasio Exilim EX-FR10Wearable CameraSamsung Gear Live SmartwatchMicrosoft Band Fitness BandSamsung SimbandFitness WatchCypress’s EZ-PD™ CCG1 controller, part of the EZ-PD controller family, is the industry’s first integrated, programmable Type-C port controller. The Type-C port controller market is expected to be $65 million in 2015, growing to $350 million in 2019 at a CAGR of 40%.Driving Smaller Form FactorsUSB Type-C replaces multiple ports and is 47% thinner than current Type-A connectors.2.4 mmUSB Type-CUSB Type-A4.5 mmFELLOW SHAREHOLDERS: 

As  the  cover  of  this  report  clearly  shows,  the
automobile has gone electronic, with as many as 150
microcontrollers  (MCUs)  embedded  in  luxury  models
today.  New  Cypress—Cypress  plus  Spansion—is
No. 3  in  MCUs  &  memories  for  automotive  systems
worldwide with a huge growth opportunity ahead. 

Embedded systems control the engines in modern cars.
They  raise  horsepower  to  that  of  the  1960s  “muscle
cars,” while providing three times the gas mileage and
reducing pollution by a factor of 10. Without electronic
engine controls, we would still be getting 10 miles per
gallon  and  breathing  the  reddish-brown  air  that  hung
over Silicon Valley when I arrived here in 1970. 

The old-fashioned “cruise control” has evolved into a
sophisticated  digital  control  system.  When  I  set  my
digital cruise control at 70 mph, my car will maintain its
speed, but also engage forward-looking radar. If I come
up  behind  a  slower-moving  vehicle,  my  car  will
automatically track that vehicle at a safe distance that
I can also control digitally. And in the event that the car
in front of me slams on its brakes, my car will automat-
ically brake to prevent a collision. Embedded systems
like this, pointing forward, backwards and into the blind
spots, are at the heart of Google’s autonomously driven
vehicle,  which  can  be  seen  driving  around  Silicon
Valley—driverless.

My  car  also  has  a  night-vision  safety  system,  which
includes  a  high-beam  infrared  headlight  that  illumi-
nates  farther  down  the  road  than  my  standard
headlights,  but  bothers  no  one  since  infrared  light  is
invisible  to  humans.  The  dashboard  display  of  the
infrared  image sensor  shows  pedestrians in  an  eerie
green  and  black  reminiscent  of  night-vision  goggles.
When I turn on my safety system, this display replaces
my speedometer, which is just an image, not a gauge.
The only improvement I would make to this system is
for  the  display  to  be  projected  “heads-up”  on  my
windshield, a reality that is only a few years away. 

These  sophisticated  systems  are  exactly  where  New
Cypress automotive products fit.

HIGH-CAGR AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS

CYPRESS

SPANSION

NEW CYPRESS

INFOTAINMENT

CAGR: 8.0%

INCLUDES

CAR AUDIO
NAVIGATION
HUMAN MACHINE 
INTERFACE (HMI)

ADVANCED DRIVER 
ASSISTANCE 
SYSTEMS (ADAS)

INSTRUMENT
CLUSTER & HEADS UP 
DISPLAY (HUD)

CAGR: 15.4%

INCLUDES

BLINDSPOT
DISTANCE WARNING
NIGHT VISION
PARKING/REVERSE
DROWSINESS 
MONITORING

CAGR: 7.0%

INCLUDES

HEADS-UP DISPLAY
HYBRID INSTRUM.
SECONDARY DISPLAY
SOLID-STATE DISPLAY
ELECTROMECH. 
INSTRUMENTATION

AUTOMOTIVE
SEGMENTS

CAGR:

8.0%
INFOTAINMENT 
ADAS
15.4%
INST. CLUSTER   7.0%

COMPARED TO:

SEMI MARKET
AUTOMOTIVE    

3.7%
5.0%

=

PRODUCTS

CAPSENSE
TRUETOUCH
TRACKPAD
F-RAM

PRODUCTS

PRODUCTS

AUTO 6CH PMIC
TRAVEO SERIES MCU

FM4 SERIES MCU
FCR4 SERIES MCU
16FX SERIES MCU
FR81S SERIES MCU

Source: 2014-2020 compound annual growth rate calculations by Strategy Analytics

Figure 1. New Cypress is a preferred supplier with multiple design
wins at each of the Top 25 global automotive OEMs, as listed on
the  front  cover.  A  majority  of  these  design  wins  are  in  the
automotive segments with the highest growth rates: Infotainment
(8.0%), ADAS (15.4%) and Instrument Clusters (7.0%). 

Even  better  news  for  New  Cypress  is  that  these
systems,  which  are  currently  offered  only  in  luxury
automobiles, will soon begin  to  show up in  the mass
market.  The  automotive  market  is  thus  our  single
greatest  opportunity.  Our  design  wins  at  the  Top  25
OEMs  are  biased  heavily  toward  the  Infotainment,
Advanced  Driver  Assistance  Systems  (ADAS)  and
Instrument  Cluster  segments  of 
the  automotive
market—the segments that are growing twice as fast
as  the  general  automotive  market,  which,  itself,  is
growing  35%  faster  than  the  semiconductor  market.
More good news is that the MCUs in these advanced
systems need SRAM and NOR flash memories—two
products in which New Cypress is No. 1 worldwide.

CYPRESS+SPANSION: 1+1=3

REVENUE RANKING IN $ MILLIONS (TOP 5)

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

No.1 
SRAM

No.1
NOR FLASH

1 CYPRESS
2 SAMSUNG
3 RENESAS
4 GSI
5 NEC

1 SPANSION
2 NUMONYX
3 MACRONIX
4 SST
5 WINBOND

238  CYPRESS
237 RENESAS
198  SAMSUNG

91  GSI
85  ISSI

342  CYPRESS
289  RENESAS
149  GSI
100  ISSI

76  SAMSUNG

304  CYPRESS
210  RENESAS

86  ISSI
85  GSI
68  SAMSUNG

249  CYPRESS
173  RENESAS

81  ISSI
69  GSI
63  IDT

855  SPANSION
510  MICRON
386  MACRONIX
157  WINBOND

97  EON (ESSI)

940  SPANSION
630  MICRON
483  MACRONIX
228  WINBOND
142  EON (ESSI)

869  SPANSION
499  MICRON
449  MACRONIX
279  WINBOND
123  MICROCHIP

812  SPANSION
450  MICRON
397  MACRONIX
300  WINBOND

92  MICROCHIP

218
113
83
61
22

611
430
388
315
64

Even  my  side  rearview  mirrors  are  sophisticated
systems  with  side-looking  radar  that  turns  on  a  red
light-emitting diode embedded in the rearview mirror to
warn me when a vehicle is in my blind spot.

No. 3 
AUTOMOTIVE
MCU+MEMORY
NEW CYPRESS

1,693  RENESAS

824  RENESAS
692  FREESCALE 1,027  FREESCALE 1,059  FREESCALE
669  CYPRESS
381  TOSHIBA
274  TI

1 RENESAS
2 FREESCALE
3 NEC
4 CYPRESS*
5 TOSHIBA
* New Cypress
Sources: Gartner, WSTS, Cypress and Spansion earnings reports

530  CYPRESS
320  TI
284  STMICRO

468  CYPRESS
324  TI
304  TOSHIBA

2,197  RENESAS

2,096  RENESAS

1,928
966  FREESCALE 1,063
528
486  CYPRESS
316  TI
358
353
297  STMICRO

My  stereo,  satellite  radio  and  movie  screens  are  all
controlled by menus on a second liquid crystal display
in  the  spot  where  the  radio  used  to  be.  This  display
controls “infotainment,” heating & air conditioning and
the  hands-free  telephone,  which  also  serves  as  an
emergency beacon in the event of a crash.

Figure  2.  Over  the  last  five  years,  Cypress  has  been  No.  1  in
worldwide  market  share  in  SRAM  memories,  and  Spansion  has
been No. 1 in NOR Flash memories. Both companies are also No. 1
in the automotive segment of those memory markets because they
meet  stringent  automotive  temperature  quality  and  reliability
requirements.  New  Cypress  is  No.  3  overall  in  market  share  in
automotive MCUs & memories. Our new company is thus a “one-
stop shop” for MCUs & memories in automotive embedded systems.

1

As leaders in nonvolatile technologies, Spansion and
Cypress both can sell not only chips, but also licenses
to their design and process technologies. 

IP LICENSING DEALS

2012

2013

Spansion

Cypress

Total

3

1

4

4

2

6

2014

6

4

10

2015

6

7

13

Spansion
(technology
node in nm)

Samsung
Panasonic
Macronix

90 nm
90 nm
110/90 nm

XMC

90/65 nm

ISSI
XMC

65/45 nm
45 nm

Cypress

HH-Grace

130 nm Microsemi 28 nm

UMC
HLMC

55 nm
55 nm

UMC

40 nm

Figure 3. New Cypress has signed 11 licensing deals so far  with
two more coming in 2015. Six of the licensing deals are with major
silicon foundries in China and Taiwan. These deals will generate
long-term, high-profit revenue.

,

In the time-to-market crunch faced by our customers,
programmable technology wins, because it provides
them with the flexibility to make changes at any point
in  the  design  or  production  cycle.  New  Cypress  is
focused on programmable products.

REVENUE FROM PROGRAMMABLE PRODUCTS

$ MILLIONS

$135 MILLION/YEAR IN SYNERGIES

$ MILLIONS/YEAR

EPS = $0.35
EPS = $0.35
EPS = $0.35

$135 million/yr 
= $0.35 EPS/yr

 EPS = EPS equivalent 
of synergies

EPS= $0.21
 EPS = $0.21

EPS = $0.07


135

108

81

54

27

0

2015
2015 (Q3 + Q4)

2016

2017

Figure 5. The Cypress-Spansion merger will generate $135 million
in annualized synergies by 2017. Without any other improvements,
these synergies will increase New Cypress’s annual EPS by $0.35.
The benefits of the merger synergies will begin to show up in Q3’15,
since our cost cutting began in Q2’15.

New  Cypress  was  launched  in  a  very  shareholder-
friendly way by closing the merger quickly to be able to
include Spansion shareholders in the $0.11 first-quarter
2015 dividend (equivalent to about 3% interest). 

782

455

DIVIDEND RETURN TO SHAREHOLDERS

900

800

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

563 

Touchscreen
revenue peak

414 

340 

337 

357 

293 

304 

270 

352 

337 

327 

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015E

Figure  4.  Both  Cypress  and  Spansion  have  developed  field-
programmable products since inception—currently New Cypress
derives two-thirds of its revenue and spends 90% of its R&D dollars
on programmable products.

FINANCES

While  our  merger  with  Spansion  provides  us  with  a
huge  growth  opportunity  in  automotive  electronics,
there  is  a  more  mundane,  yet  very  compelling,  force
driving the merger—synergies.

2

125 

63 

65 

69 

$ MILLIONS

29 

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015E

Figure 6. New Cypress will continue to focus on returning capital
to its shareholders by paying out an approximate $125 million in
dividends to shareholders in 2015 and thereafter. (See our capital
return history in Part II of this report.)

Our dividend—combined with the limited share-price
downside  described  in  Part  II  of  this  report  and  our
tremendous automotive market upside—should make
New  Cypress  a  consistently  attractive  investment  in
the years to come.

T.J. Rodgers
President and CEO

2014 ANNUAL REPORTCypress + Spansion = No. 3 in AutomotiveThe Cypress-Spansion merger opens doors at top new customers and positions New Cypress as the No. 3 provider of automotive MCUs and memories with $500 million in revenue and as a preferred supplier to the top 25 global OEMs.INFOTAINMENTVolkswagen Honda Mercedes Tesla Nissan BMW  InfinitiHVAC CONTROLToyota Fiat Mitsubishi AudiGM Honda Subaru PeugeotHyundai  Mazda  Volvo  Land RoverPOWERTRAINVolkswagen BMWAudiINSTRUMENT CLUSTERSToyota  Ford  Mercedes SubaruGM Nissan Mazda   Peugeot Volkswagen Honda Mitsubishi  DaihatsuHyundai  Suzuki TATA  LamborghiniEVENT DATA RECORDERSHyundai DIAGNOSTICS AND PERFORMANCE MONITORINGHyundaiBODY ELECTRONICSToyota GM BODY ELECTRONICS MODULES, LIGHTING AND PERIPHERAL ECUsToyota Nissan MazdaGM Honda MitsubishiHyundai  Suzuki IsuzuFord Renault SmartEV/HEVToyotaHondaDRIVERASSISTANCEGMVolkswagenBMWAudi CYPRESS+SPANSION: 1+1 = 31ST IN SRAM, 1ST IN NOR FLASH AND 3RD  IN AUTOMOTIVE MCUs & MEMORYThe First Annual Report of New...2014 ANNUAL REPORTYOU ARE AUTHORIZED TO READ THIS REPORT1010101001010100100010010101001000010100111101010100101101010011110101010010111010101001001011001010100001110110010010010010001001010011110101010010111010101001001001001010100001000110010010010010101001101010010111010101001001001100101000110010010010010001The FPG1 fingerprint reading system will enter the $460 million market in the second quarter.101000100101010010000101001111010101001010101010100100100100101010001001010100100001010011110101010010111010101001001001001000111010101001010100100010010101001000010100111101010100101101010011110101010010111010101001001001001010100001000110010010010010001001010011010101010010111010101001001001001010100001000110010010010010001001101010010111010101001001001100001000110010010010010001The TrueTouch® fingerprint reader chip is here!The Last Annual Report of Old...Cypress Semiconductor Corp. 2014 Annual Report and 2014 Proxy StatementCYPRESS + SPANSION: WORLDWIDE LEADER IN SRAM AND NOR FLASHThe merger will make New Cypress the industry’s high-performance memory leader with the broadest portfolio, as shown in the table below. Cypress is the worldwide leader in SRAMs and nonvolatile RAMs (NVRAMs) and Spansion is the worldwide leader in NOR flash. The typical embedded system includes flash, SRAM and DRAM memories, so New Cypress will have a leadership position in two of these three critical system memories. The table below also provides the parameters by which each Cypress memory type is judged to have best-in-class performance.Cypress offers a complete and growing portfolio of solutions that enable customers to design wearable electronics with integrated sensors. These solutions offer an intuitive user interface, ultra-low power and the industry’s smallest form factors. Cypress gained significant traction in the wearables market in 2014 with many new design wins, some of which are shown below.TrueTouch® and CapSense® touch controllers – The industry’s lowest power, smallest size and best waterproofing.PSoC® Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE) solutions – Ultra-low-power wireless connectivity with low-power analog for biometrics.PRoC™ BLE solutions – Ultra-low-power wireless connectivity with CapSense for a natural UI.Low-Power (MoBL®) Asynchronous SRAMs – Memories that buffer data to reduce radio usage and extend battery life.F-RAMs™ – High-reliability memories that store the most vital data—“black box” data—with the lowest possible energy.CYPRESS + SPANSION: A LEADER IN SOLUTIONS FOR WEARABLESWearable electronics are everywhere: designer smartwatches, fitness and activity monitors, cameras, smart glasses and medical products such as hearing aids and wearable patches. The wearables market is expected to be $1.5 billion in 2015, growing to $19.0 billion in 2018 at a CAGR of 88.7%. With its ultra-low-power microcontrollers, memories and capacitive touch-sensing controllers, New Cypress is uniquely equipped to compete in this market, where performance = low power. New Cypress Has the Broadest Portfolio and the Highest-Performance Memories for Embedded SystemsNew Cypress’s Broad Portfolio of Wearables Solutions Enables Next-Generation End ProductsProduct Category New           Competitors            Performance Advantage Cypress Renesas ISSI Micron FujitsuQDR®-IV synchronous SRAM      Highest RTR (random transaction rate) 2.1 GT/sAsynchronous SRAM with ECC1      Highest-reliability fast SRAM <0.1 FIT3MicroPower SRAM      Lowest-power SRAM (standby current) 1.5 µASerial F-RAM™2      Lowest-power F-RAM (standby current) 100 µAParallel nvSRAM      Fastest NVRAM 20 ns AGIGARAM®      Highest-density NVRAM 16 GBHyperFlash™ memory      Highest-read-throughput NOR flash 333 MBpsSerial NOR flash      Fastest read, program and erase  160 MBps       high-density SPI flash Parallel NOR flash      Fastest parallel NOR flash read 90 MBps SLC NAND flash      Fastest low-density NAND flash read 25 nse.MMC NAND flash      Highest-reliability high-density   0 FIT3       NAND flash (data loss) SRAMNVRAMNORFlashNANDFlashCYPRESSSPANSION                          Product Category Smartwatches Activity Hearing Wearable Smart    Monitors Aids Patches GlassesAnalog Front End PSoC® 4 PSoC® 3System-on-Chip PSoC 4 BLE PSoC 5LPWireless PSoC BLECapacitive-Sensing CapSense® controllersController Touch Controller TrueTouch® touchscreen controllersTrackpad Trackpad moduleExternal Memory MicroPower SRAM Nonvolatile F-RAMExternal Memory Nonvolatile NOR flashMicrocontroller FM0+ FM3Power Management Energy-harvesting power supplyCYPRESSSPANSIONMetrics1. Error-Correcting Code. 2. Ferroelectric RAMs. 3. Failures In Time (billion hours)WINNING IN THE WEARABLE ELECTRONICS REVOLUTIONENABLING THE USB TYPE-C STANDARD: POWER & DATA FROM A SINGLE PLUGHow convenient would it be to have a standard port to connect your laptop, smartphone, tablet and peripherals that provided them all with power and data regardless of the product brands you choose? New USB Type-C standard connectors deliver just that. Backed by Apple and Intel, the standard is gaining rapid support among top-tier PC makers, enabling slim industrial designs, easy-to-use connectors and cables, and the ability to transmit protocols other than USB. Type-C also integrates USB Power Delivery (USB-PD), a new USB standard that increases power delivery from 7.5 W to 100 W.The second-generation EZ-PD™ CCG2 is the world’s smallest integrated USB Type-C port controller, measuring only 3.3 mm2 in its chip-scale package.The communications port determines the thickness of a laptop PC, as shown in the image above of a standard 4.5-mm-high USB Type-A connector. The 2.4-mm USB Type-C connector is not only half as thick, but it also eliminates the need for the power and DisplayPort plugs.Basis PeakSmartwatchBM Innnovations’ Under Armour Fitness WatchFitbit SurgeFitness WatchSamsung Gear SSmartwatchCasio Exilim EX-FR10Wearable CameraSamsung Gear Live SmartwatchMicrosoft Band Fitness BandSamsung SimbandFitness WatchCypress’s EZ-PD™ CCG1 controller, part of the EZ-PD controller family, is the industry’s first integrated, programmable Type-C port controller. The Type-C port controller market is expected to be $65 million in 2015, growing to $350 million in 2019 at a CAGR of 40%.Driving Smaller Form FactorsUSB Type-C replaces multiple ports and is 47% thinner than current Type-A connectors.2.4 mmUSB Type-CUSB Type-A4.5 mmFELLOW SHAREHOLDERS: 

In the 2008 Annual Report, I wrote about life after the
“SunPower era,” because Cypress had just returned to
being  a  semiconductor-only  company  after  spinning
out  its  subsidiary,  SunPower,  in  a  $2.55  billion  stock
dividend  to  shareholders  in  September  2008.  Today,
SunPower is the No. 2 solar company in the world, with
$3.0 billion in revenue. Cypress has now entered the
“Spansion  era,”  the  topic  of  Part  I  of  this  two-part
Annual  Report  (following  the  automobile  portfolio
cover). This is Part II, the final Annual Report of “Old
Cypress,” covering the period from the 2008 SunPower
spinout through year-end 2014.

Cypress employees see the fingerprint image on the
cover of this part of the report—generated by our new
TrueTouch fingerprint reader chip—as a symbol of the
most fundamental change in the DNA of Old Cypress
over the last decade. In 2008, we were in the midst of
designing  the  PSoC  5  Programmable  System-on-
Chip,  the  replacement  for  our  highly  successful
PSoC 1 family. PSoC 5 was our first PSoC with a 32-
bit processor—and a huge, new technical challenge
for us. We completed the definition of the product in
September  2007  and  made  our  sixth  and  final
“tapeout” to wafer manufacturing in October 2012. It
took  us  six  years  to  develop  our  first  PSoC  world-
class computer system on a chip, which included not
only the processor, but also 81 other “IP blocks,” self-
contained blocks of circuitry, each as complicated as
a typical Cypress chip was just 15 years ago.

The  TrueTouch  fingerprint  reader  chip  is  the  most
sensitive  and  highest-resolution  capacitive  sensing
chip  we  have  ever  attempted,  despite  having  previ-
ously shipped over one billion chips of this type. Like
PSoC 5, it also contains a 32-bit computer and many
IP blocks—40 to be specific. In this case, the time from
the specification signing to manufacturing tapeout took
nine weeks, not six years. Furthermore, the first lot of
silicon  wafers—not 
the  sixth—worked  perfectly.
Cypress can now develop state-of-the-art systems-on-
chip  in  record  time.  That  game-changing  new  DNA
(now embedded in 105 Cypress design specifications)
is the R&D core of New Cypress.

FINANCIAL METRICS

CYPRESS P&Ls (POST-SPWR)

(IN MILLIONS, EXCEPT PER-SHARE DATA)

Revenue
Gross profit
Cost of R&D
Cost of SG&A
OPEX
Operating income
Earnings after tax

2008 
$766 
373 
153 
192 
345 

28 
33 

2009 
$668 
315 
145 
153 
297 

18 
18 

2010 
a $884 
519 
154 
163 
317 

201 
186 

2011 
a $995
570 
166 
168 
334 

237 
238 

2012 
$770 
427 
166 
164 
330 

97 
91 

2013 
$723 
377 
162 
143 
305 

72 
63 

2014 
$725 
382 
147 
138 
285 

97 
87 

Earnings per share

$ 0.20 

$ 0.10  b $ 0.94 b $ 1.25

$ 0.55 

$ 0.39 

$ 0.52 

Shares
Share price:
Year-end
Max
Min

c 166.2

183.2 

198.0 

190.7 

165.3 

161.5  c 168.4

d $4.47
5.73 
f 2.72

$10.56 

$16.89
$18.58 
11.27  b  18.58  b  23.64 
14.08 
9.94 
3.87 

$10.50
19.15 
8.89 

$10.29 d $14.60
13.10  e 14.61
8.29

8.97  e

Figure 1. Cypress’s P&L statements from 2008 (SunPower spinout
year)  through  2014  (the  last  year  of  Old  Cypress  before  the
Spansion  merger).  The  major  events  are  labeled  with  letters.
a. Despite  relatively  flat  revenue  during  the  period,  we  experi-
enced a significant touchscreen revenue peak in 2010 and 2011.
b. The touchscreen revenue peak led to peak EPS ($0.94-$1.25)
and peak share prices ($18-$23) in 2010 and 2011.  c. Despite the
severe dilution caused by the SunPower spinout, the number of
outstanding  shares  was  ultimately  held  constant  at  about  168
million using buybacks.  d. The year-end share price rose to $14.60
in 2014 from $4.47 in 2008 over the six-year period (21.8% CAGR).
e. In 2014 the share price rose to $14.61 from $8.29 due to news
of the Spansion merger.  f. The low share price for the period was
$2.72, in 2008, when I disclosed my open market purchase of one
million shares (my current holding is 8.7 million shares).

Cypress’s 2008-2014 non-GAAP P&L statements are
shown  in  Figure 1.  During  the  2008-2014  period,
Cypress’s revenue was flat at about $800 million due
to strong growth in our PSoC business offset by a rapid
decline in the SRAM market. The revenue peak in 2010
and  2011  was  driven  by  the  broad  worldwide  accep-
tance of capacitive touchscreens on cell phones at a
relatively high chip price ($1.20), a peak that will never
be  repeated  because  touchscreen  chips  now  sell  for
$0.50 or less. The good news is that the SRAM market
contraction  appears  to  be  over.  With  all  factors
included,  Old  Cypress’s  board-approved,  standalone
2015  annual  plan—now  obsolete—was  to  grow  to
$756  million  in  revenue  in  2015  from  $725  million  in
2014. Taking the Spansion merger into account, we’re
going to do a lot better than that.

This is the 29th Annual Report I've written for our public shareholders. I thank the Cypress employees who helped to create the report, often 
after-hours and over the weekends. We tell our own story without the use of ad agencies or PR firms.   TJR

All figures are based on non-GAAP financial measures. Refer to our current and prior annual reports for a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures.

The letter to Stockholders and “Management Discussion and Analysis” contain a number of forward-looking statements about the prospects for Cypress and its subsidiaries as well as the 
semiconductor industry more generally, which are based on our current information and expectations and could be affected by uncertainties and risk factors, including but not limited to those 
described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed February 17, 2015. Our actual results may differ materially. We use words such as, “anticipates”, believes”, “expects”, “future”, “planning”, 
“intends” and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements which include statements related to our prices, growth, supply, operations, shipments, our current and future products, 
profit and revenue.
Cypress, the Cypress logo, Spansion, the Spansion logo, and combinations thereof, PSoC, CapSense, MoBL and TrueTouch are registered trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. 
HyperFlash, PRoC, F-RAM and EZ-PD are trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. AgigA and AGIGARAM are registered trademarks of AgigA Tech. Inc. SunPower is a registered 
trademark of SunPower Corp. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. 

1

OPERATING EXPENSES AND EPS

CAPITAL RETURN TO SHAREHOLDERS

$ MILLIONS

$ DOLLARS

388

383

354

374

358

357

326

345

334

330

317

297

305

285

1.25 

0.94 

0.65 

0.28 

0.48 

0.37 

0.20 

0.10 

0.55 

0.52 

0.39 

500 

450 

400 

350 

300 

250 

200 

150 

100 

50 

0 

(0.07)

(0.30)

(0.62)

1.50 

1.25  

1.00 

0.75 

0.50 

0.25 

0 

(0.25)

(0.50)

2001    2002   2003   2004   2005   2006   2007   2008   2009   2010   2011 2012   2013   2014

Figure 2. Since the 2001 dot-com crash, Cypress has relentlessly
driven down opex at the rate of $6.7 million (about $0.039 EPS
equivalent) per year for 13 years, accounting for approximately half
of our average EPS improvement of $0.073 per year. The other
half of the EPS improvement was due to increased gross margin.

CYPRESS RELATIVE SHARE PRICE

400

 % GAIN VS. 9/30/08 (6¼ YRS, 1,572 TRADING DAYS)

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

Touchscreen
revenue peak

Spansion
merger

CY +180%
17.9% CAGR 

SOX +127%
14.0% CAGR

DJIA 63%
8.5% CAGR

NASDAQ

-50
Aug 14
Sep 11
Dec 09      Dec 10          Dec 11          Dec 12    
Sep 08Dec 08
Sep 08Dec 08           Dec 09            Dec 10             Dec 11               Dec 12              Dec 13

Dec 13 

Sep 10

Sep 13

Sep 12

Sep 08

Sep 09

Dec 14

Figure 3. In the six years since the SunPower spinout, Cypress
shares  have  appreciated  180%  (CAGR  17.9%)  vs.  the  SOX
semiconductor  index,  which  appreciated  127%  (CAGR  14.0%).
The large spike and decline in the 2010-2013 timeframe are due
to the rise and fall of our touchscreen revenue, while the last spike
is due to the Spansion merger.

Cypress’s DNA has also evolved due to a 12-year diet
of Japanese Lean Methodology, the process of identi-
fying and understanding the value customers will pay for
and grinding down non-value-added costs. As Figure 2
shows, our EPS has increased an average of $0.073 per
year  for  13  years,  and  we  have  not  had  a  loss  since
2005,  when  we  said  “No  More  Moore”  and  stopped
building new wafer fabrication plants to chase Moore’s
Law. The rise in EPS over the 2008-2014 period and the
initiation of a dividend in 2011 enabled Cypress shares
to  outperform  the  SOX  index  on  1,428  of  the  1,572
trading days during that period, as shown in Figure 3.
Despite the 17.9% share-price CAGR over that period,
the stock underperformed badly in 2012 and 2013.

COST
(MILLIONS)

DIVIDEND 
(MILLIONS)

SHARES
BOUGHT 
(MILLIONS)

0.0

0.4

18.0

36.0

12.6

7.7

25.1

99.8

YEAR

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

TOTAL

COST/
SHARE

$10.16

$10.47

$12.88

$18.08

$12.29

$8.03

$4.17

$0

$5

$232

$651

$155

$62

$105

$69

$65

$63

$29

N/A

N/A

$2,554

$2,780

$12.12

$1,210

Figure  4.  Cypress  is  committed  to  returning  capital  to  share-
holders. We returned $3.99 billion to shareholders in the 6¼-year
post-SunPower era in the form of share buybacks ($1.21 billion),
cash dividends ($226 million) and the SunPower stock dividend
($2.55 billion).

Cypress intends to be a shareholder-friendly company.
That focus started in earnest in 2008 when we had to
make  the  tough  choice  of  whether  to  keep  our  hard-
won  SunPower  revenue  or  spin  out  SunPower  to
shareholders.  We  chose  to  distribute  $2.55  billion  in
SunPower  stock  to  our  shareholders.  And  in  March
2015,  we  accelerated  the  closing  of  the  Spansion
merger  to  get  the  first  dividend  to  Spansion  share-
holders one quarter early. 

P/S RATIO

(FULLY DILUTED SHARES x SHARE PRICE) / (LAST QTR REVENUE x4)

7.67

6.96

4.92

4.23

4.13

4.22

5.20

4.52

90% =
3.58

50% = 
2.45

10% = 
2.18

3.39

2.81

1.96

90% = 
3.76

50% = 
2.35

2.41

10% = 
1.48

1.52

1.25

1.11

1.08

0.68

0.67

BLACK TUESDAY (10/20/87)

DIVIDEND (6/22/11)

85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14

8.0

7.5

7.0

6.5

6.0

5.5

5.0

4.5

4.0

3.5

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0

Figure 5. Cypress’s price-to-sales (P/S) ratio fluctuated between
1.48 (10%-ile) and 3.76 (90%-ile) between October 1987 and June
2011, the month when we began to pay a quarterly dividend. Since
then, the downside risk (10%-ile) of the stock has risen from 37%
below the median to just 11% below the median, while the upside
potential (90%-ile) remains at 46% above the median. Investors
who buy Cypress shares at the median P/S ratio now see signifi-
cantly higher upside than downside.

We  are  proud  of  our  accomplishments  in  the  2008-
2014 
be 
proud 
entering the Spansion era as a better company.

  era.  And  we 

SunPower

post-

to 

are 

T.J. Rodgers
President and CEO

2