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Chipping away Based in Milpitas, California, LSI has been climbing its way to the top of the microchip pile since 1981. The self-titled "system-on-a-chip" company, LSI Logic Corporation designs and produces advanced custom semiconductors. The semiconductors, known as ASICs (application specific integrated circuits), are used in high-demand electronics like computers, cellular phones, and audio products. Founder Wilfred Corrigan, an engineer and former CEO of Fairchild Camera & Instrument, named the company LSI for large-scale integration, after a chip that has up to 100,000 transistors. Competition in the semiconductor industry pushed Corrigan to hone in on the ASICs niche market, a move that proved ingenious. By 1983, LSI went public with a record-setting $152 million IPO. With skyrocketing sales, the company expanded operations in California and worldwide and debuted regional design centers where customers could design their own chips using company equipment and facilities. The Cold War was kind to LSI Logic: contracts with big military and aerospace customers pushed company sales to $140 million in 1985, making LSI America's leading ASIC manufacturer. The company continued to expand in the 1980s, gearing up for a predicted boom in the chip market with hefty investments in manufacturing facilities. When aerospace industry sales slumped in the late 1980s, however, LSI sales hit a downturn, forcing the company to close factories and slash payrolls. In 1992 LSI suffered a $102 million restructuring charge. Key alliances With a narrower focus and a slimmer payroll, LSI emerged in 1993 with three technological breakthroughs. The company debuted two new high-performance chips, the CMOS ASIC chip and the ATM chip, and a family of ethernet products dubbed CASCADE. High-profile partnerships helped push LSI to the top again in the 1990s. LSI and TV maker Zenith began co-development of a chip for cable television decoder boxes in 1993. That same year, the company entered a 10-year technology-sharing agreement with Synopsys and Cadence, leaders in electronic design automation. In 1994, the company kicked off a joint venture with Kawasaki Steel, and Sony debuted its PlayStation video game system based on LSI's CoreWare design. LSI bought out Kawasaki in 1995, and passed the $1 billion-revenue mark. Though an industry slump in 1996 put LSI sales on the decline, the company continued to grow in 1997, forming alliances with fellow chip makers Micron Technology and Sun Microsystems. Also in 1997, the company announced plans to build a $1 billion chip factory in Oregon. In October of 1997, LSI Logic announced the development of a new "system on a chip" that reduces the time and manpower required for complex designs by up to 75 percent. LSI's one-chip technology and cheap prices ($35, on average, for a chip) have given it the edge in up-and-coming industries such as computer gaming and network PCs. If weren't for that darn crisis in Asia... In 1998, LSI announced a technological innovation that allowed smaller, faster chips to combine the functions of several consumer products, such as cable television, satellite, and broadcast and telephone transmissions into one unit. The company's operations in Asia remained relatively strong despite the economic turmoil there. In 1998, LSI paid $760 million for Symbios, the electronics subsidiary of the struggling Korean manufacturer Hyundai. Meanwhile, LSI execs expect revenues from Asia outside Japan to double - and had the Asian financial crisis not taken hold, company officials said sales of chips for consumer electronics in the Far East could have tripled. Buy buy buy As semiconductors sales revived, LSI made another large acquisition in 1999 - data communications chipmaker Seeq Technology - for $100 million. Seeq will be incorporated into LSI's networking division. It was a prudent move, as networking chips are predicted to sell twice as fast as microprocessors through 2002. In 1999 LSI sold over 19 million Fast Ethernet 10/100 MAC ports, solidifying its leadership in providing circuits to the networking market. In May 2000 LSI announced its $420 million acquisition of DataPath Systems Inc., gaining products standard in the broadband communications market such as cable modems and ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line). Success in broadband and other rapidly growing communications markets is expected for LSI, as it also licensed technology from Alcatel which will allow it to create system-on-a-chip offerings for ADSL modems. These products are expected to be available for sale by the end of 2000. LSI's spring 2000 buying spree began with the acquisition of NeoMagic Corporation's design team and RF intellectual property for $14.5 million and CacheWare, Inc.'s assets for $23 million. It didn't end there, as LSI went on to buy IntraServer Technology Inc. for $70 million. This seemingly insatiable appetite is expected to pay off with new and improved products and services by 2001. LSI introduced the world's fastest 64-bit MIPS microprocessor core in 2000, which can be used in multiple systems requiring 64-bit preformance. The same day LSI unveiled its new 32-bit microprocessor, which has the inidustry's lowest power consumption and can be easily implemented into several cost-sensitive MIPS applications like hand-held devices, storage products, printers, and scanners.
Visit the "Ideal Careers" section of LSI's web site for details on job openings. Positions range from editorial to engineering to finance. Send or fax resumes to human resources. LSI Logic has many opportunities for recent college graduates, mostly for electrical engineers and computer science majors, though business majors can find opportunities as business analysts. LSI Logic recruits mostly at Midwestern, Western and Southern universities with top-notch engineering programs. Resumes may be faxed to (408) 433-6737, or emailed to jobs@lsil.com. Most new college graduates are placed at the headquarters at Milpitas; at other sites in California, including Fremont and Irvine; Houston; Boulder, Colorado; Boca Raton; and the brand new fab in Gresham, Oregon.
High marks for diversity LSI offers typical high tech fare, casual dress and hard work, with a twist -- a bit more diversity than you might expect from a Silicon Valley company. "This is definitely not a cookie-cutter, uniformed operation in terms of the people," one employee remarks. Another contact says: "The culture is very diverse, in terms of ethnic background, personal backgrounds, and interests." According to yet another: "It's hard to say what a minority is here -- we have such a wide range of geographical backgrounds here." As for treatment of women, one engineer reports: "I have worked in environments where the lab is like a frat house or locker room. It is definitely not like that here." Dress your conscience Dress tends to vary too -- one employee says that the dress code at LSI Logic is "whatever you feel comfortable with. It's jeans to suits around here, and dress-down Fridays are a given." However, one engineer says that "there has never been a tie spotted here. Dress ranges from long pants with button down shirts, to shorts and T-shirts." Fair pay, juicy 401(k) An employee at one of LSI's smaller design centers also turned in top ratings for the company. "There's not a lot of hierarchy here, probably more cooperation and less conflict than you find at other companies." Pay is described as "fair, but not the industry's highest." Still, insiders report that LSI tries to stay five percent above the industry standard "in all geographies and specialties." Perks include stock options, a 401(k) plan, and a competitive health plan. The 401(k) is especially juicy -- employees can put "up to 15 percent of your salary into the tax free account, and LSI will add up to 3 percent of your salary if the firm meets quarterly profit goals." There is also a tempting stock option purchase plan that "allows employees to buy [stock with] up to 10 percent of their salary at 85 percent of market value." An exciting ride The company's family of global subsidiaries means lots of chances to rack up frequent flyer miles. "The best part of working here is keeping my frequent flyer miles," says one insider. "I average over 100K miles per year, and that works out to some serious vacation flying." Hours are convenient as well. "Most people work from 9 to 6," says one employee. "If you don't need much face to face interaction at your task, you can work at home. For that, the company provides a workstation and pays for the ISDN expenses." Though employees recommend LSI, one warns that the semiconductor industry can be unruly: "LSI is a great place to work, generally however, I would not recommend the semiconductor industry as a great career. It is very high pressure, fast rate of change and quite unstable. But I must admit, it's a helluva ride."
Human Resources
Advanced Micro Devices;Cyrix;Intel;NEC;Rise More Company Profiles For more career information, go to Vault.com ©2000, Vault.com Inc
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