Microchip Technology Delivers Six Billionth PIC(R) Microcontroller

White-Good Appliance Maker Mabe Takes Delivery of Six Billionth PIC Microcontroller

CHANDLER, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Microchip Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHP), a leading provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors, today announced the shipment of its six billionth PIC(R) microcontroller to Mexico-based white-good appliance producer Mabe. Microchip delivered this six billionth microcontroller, the PIC12F635-I/P, barely a year after delivering its five billionth in November 2006.

Today's announcement demonstrates the industry's continued acceptance of Microchip's PIC microcontrollers as the high-performance, cost-effective solution for embedded-control designs, and provides further evidence of the Company's continued strong growth throughout Latin America.

"The shipment of our six billionth PIC microcontroller is a remarkable achievement, and shipping it to a customer in Mexico is even more satisfying as we continue to see widespread adoption of our broad embedded-control portfolio throughout Latin America," said Microchip's president and CEO Steve Sanghi.

According to Sanghi, going from five to six billion in a year is a significant accomplishment for Microchip, as the Company continues to gain worldwide market share. "We have reached this milestone because customers like Mabe recognize the value in our flexible PIC microcontroller architectures, the fact that we have the industry's strongest migration path, our easy-to-use MPLAB(R) development systems, our comprehensive sales support, and our dependable supply performance."

A Microchip customer for over 10 years, Mabe is one of the largest producers of white-good appliances in the Americas -- with over 22,000 employees spread across Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina and Brazil. Mabe has won numerous awards, including the National Prize of Technology in 2003, which was presented by Mexican President Vicente Fox. The company uses a broad line of embedded-control solutions from Microchip, including PIC microcontrollers.

"Our longstanding relationship with Microchip Technology has been beneficial to both parties, and we are proud to be the recipient of their six billionth PIC microcontroller," said Engineer Jose Berrondo, Mabe's Vice President of Technology and Products. "The exceptional development tools and support from Microchip helped speed our product development and qualification time."

Microchip serves more than 60,000 customers in over 65 countries, has shipped nearly 600,000 development tools to date, and partners with more than 130 global third-party tool manufacturers.

Microchip has a broad portfolio of nearly 500 8-, 16- and 32-bit PIC microcontrollers, and is the only company to support all of its microcontrollers and DSCs under a single integrated development environment -- the free MPLAB IDE. The six billionth PIC MCU shipped, PIC12F635-I/P, highlights the strengths of the PIC MCU architecture, with its on-chip precision internal oscillator, A/D converter, analog comparator, 1.75 Kbytes of Flash program memory, and in-circuit programming in an 8-pin DIP package.

Microchip Customer Support

Microchip is committed to supporting its customers by helping design engineers develop products faster and more efficiently. Customers can access four main service areas at www.microchip.com. The Support area provides a fast way to get questions answered; the Sample area offers free evaluation samples of any Microchip device; microchipDIRECT provides 24-hour pricing, ordering, inventory and credit for convenient purchasing of all Microchip devices and development tools; finally, the Training area educates customers through webinars, sign-ups for local seminar and workshop courses, and information about the annual MASTERs events held throughout the world.

About Microchip Technology

Microchip Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHP) is a leading provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors, providing low-risk product development, lower total system cost and faster time to market for thousands of diverse customer applications worldwide. Headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, Microchip offers outstanding technical support along with dependable delivery and quality. For more information, visit the Microchip website at www.microchip.com.

Note: The Microchip name and logo, PIC, and MPLAB are registered trademarks of Microchip Technology Incorporated in the USA and other countries. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies.

Source: Microchip Technology Inc.

Released February 27, 2008