SunPower Strengthens Leadership Team to Support Rapid Growth; Key Appo

    Business Editors/High-Tech Editors

    SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 12, 2005--SunPower Corp., a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:CY), today announced two key appointments to further strengthen the company's leadership team. Jon Whiteman has been promoted to vice president of strategic supply and Mark Liffmann has joined SunPower as director of North American sales and marketing.
    "SunPower is currently engaged in an aggressive capacity build-out of our Philippines solar cell manufacturing plant, effectively quadrupling capacity over the next 12 months," said Tom Werner, SunPower's CEO. "Jon and Mark bring exceptional experience in supply chain management and the North American outbound channel to round out a very strong leadership team."
    Mr. Whiteman has more than two decades of global experience in strategic supply chain management, procurement and logistics with leading firms in Silicon Valley's semiconductor industry including National Semiconductor, VLSI Technology, Cypress Semiconductor, Siliconix, Vishay, and U-Freight. "Jon will manage two critical initiatives," said Tom Werner. "First, he will be looking to optimize our upstream silicon raw material supply positions. Equally important, he will be applying his considerable background in global supply chain management to streamline and rationalize our supply chain with the goal of significantly reducing SunPower's material cost structure."
    Mr. Liffmann has extensive experience in photovoltaic (PV) industry sales and distribution, and will be responsible for the implementation, growth and ongoing management of SunPower's North American dealer/installer partner network. Prior to joining SunPower, Mr. Liffmann was chief operating officer at Solar Depot, North America's largest PV distributor.
    "SunPower's modules provide up to 50 percent more power on a typical residential roof compared with most other comparable PV products, and they also offer a unique, uniform all-black appearance that is appealing to residential customers," said Peter Aschenbrenner, SunPower's vice president of sales and marketing. "There is significant interest from solar installers across North America to market SunPower products. Mark brings a wealth of highly relevant experience and contacts to this position, and we are fortunate that he has agreed to join SunPower to help us introduce our breakthrough products to customers throughout the United States."

    About SunPower

    SunPower -- a Silicon Valley based, majority-owned subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:CY) -- designs and manufactures high-performance silicon solar cells and modules based on a unique all-back-contact design. SunPower's solar cells and modules generate about 50 percent more power per square foot than competing solar technologies and have an attractive, all-black appearance. For more information on SunPower or solar technology, please visit the SunPower website at http://www.sunpowercorp.com.

    About Cypress

    Cypress solutions are at the heart of any system that is built to perform: consumer, computation, data communications, automotive, industrial, and solar power. Leveraging a strong commitment to customer service and performance-based process and manufacturing expertise, Cypress's product portfolio includes a broad selection of wired and wireless USB devices, CMOS image sensors, timing solutions, network search engines, specialty memories, high-bandwidth synchronous and micropower memory products, optical solutions, and reconfigurable mixed-signal arrays. Cypress stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CY. More information about the company is available online at www.cypress.com.

    SunPower is a registered trademark of SunPower Corp. Cypress and the Cypress logo are registered trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

--30--NJ/sf*

CONTACT: SunPower Corp. Julie Blunden, 408-470-4277 Julie.blunden@sunpowercorp.com or Cypress Semiconductor Corp. Ed Rebello, 408-545-7665 ewr@cypress.com

KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA MINNESOTA TEXAS INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE ENERGY TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE NETWORKING MANAGEMENT CHANGES SOURCE: SunPower Corp.

Copyright Business Wire 2005