SunPower to Double Manufacturing Capacity in 2005

With Current Capacity Sold Out, SunPower Will Expand its Philippines Factory to 50MW

SUNNYVALE, Calif., December 14, 2004 - SunPower Corp., a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY), today announced it will expand the manufacturing capacity of its solar cell factory in the Philippines to 50 MW by the second half of next year-- doubling its current capacity. This capacity expansion will allow SunPower to better meet the high levels of demand for its solar cells and modules following their market introduction earlier in 2004.


The new production line will be constructed within the company's existing 225,000 square-foot SunPower Manufacturing Limited (SPML) facility near Manila, which the company opened in March of this year. The building footprint is designed to allow future capacity expansion to more than 100 MW — approximately 32 million wafers per year.

Demand for solar electric systems has been growing rapidly. According to Strategies Unlimited, a leading independent market research firm, industry shipments are projected to have increased by 47 percent to more than 990 MW in 2004 and have grown on average by more than 40 percent annually over the past five years.

"SunPower's solar cells and modules combine the industry's highest performance with a uniquely attractive appearance," said Tom Werner, CEO of SunPower Corp. "Following the launch of our product line this past June, demand has far exceeded the capacity of our first 25 MW production line. This new capacity will enable us to better serve our existing customer base and to pursue new market opportunities."

About A-300

SunPower's A-300 solar cell features a unique, all-back-contact design that maximizes working cell area, hides unsightly wires and simplifies automated production. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently measured the A-300 solar cell's power efficiency at an industry-best 21.5 percent; where competing production cells typically measure in the 12- to 15-percent range. The solar cell's low voltage-temperature coefficient, exceptional low-light performance and high sensitivity to light across the entire solar spectrum enable the A-300 to convert virtually every accessible photon into useable electricity, maximizing annual energy production.

Photo

A photo of the SunPower's A300 solar cells can be downloaded from: www.sunpowercorp.com/pub/a300.jpg.

About SunPower

SunPower—a majority-owned subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY)—designs and manufactures high-performance silicon solar cells based on an interdigitated all-back-contact design. The company's initial products were put to use in a variety of high-performance applications, including the NASA-sponsored AeroVironment airplane, "Helios," that flew to a record altitude of 96,863 feet on August 13, 2001. SunPower manufactures its high -performance A-300 solar cells in a new facility outside of Manila, the Philippines. The company currently operates a 25 MW production line there, and is planning to ramp production to more than 100 MW. For more information on SunPower or solar technology, please visit the SunPower website at http://www.sunpowercorp.com.

About Cypress

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY) is Connecting from Last Mile to First Mile' with high-performance solutions for personal, network access, enterprise, metro switch and core communications-system applications. Cypress Connects' using wireless, wireline, digital, and optical transmission standards, including USB, Fibre Channel, SONET/SDH, Gigabit Ethernet and DWDM. Leveraging its process and system-level expertise, Cypress makes industry-leading physical layer devices, framers, and network search engines, along with a broad portfolio of high-bandwidth memories, timing technology solutions and reconfigurable mixed-signal arrays. More information about Cypress is accessible online at www.cypress.com.

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Cypress and the Cypress logo are registered trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation. "Connecting from Last Mile to First Mile," and "Cypress Connects" are trademarks of Cypress. SunPower is a trademark of SunPower Corp. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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