Discera Wins Technology Innovation Award From The Wall Street Journal

SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwire - October 10, 2007) - Discera, a world leader in CMOS MEMS oscillators, resonators, and provider of next-generation timing solutions, is one of four semiconductor companies singled out for the prestigious and highly competitive Technology Innovation awards by The Wall Street Journal. Discera was named a runner up in the semiconductor category for its tiny silicon resonators for the frequency and timing-control markets. These devices can replace quartz timing components used in most consumer and military electronic devices. Discera will be honored at an awards ceremony and dinner on Oct. 24 in Redwood City, California.

The Wall Street Journal received over 800 applications for its seventh annual awards. These applications were narrowed down to a field of 150 entries which were reviewed by a distinguished panel of judges from business, research and academic organizations. This field was then narrowed down to just 30 winners. To qualify, technologies had to constitute a breakthrough from traditional methods, not just an incremental improvement. Awards were made for each of the twelve categories reviewed, including semiconductors. There was also an overall Gold, Silver and Bronze Award.

"We are honored to be one of the select companies recognized by The Wall Street Journal," said Tom Willey, CEO, Discera. "This is a great validation of the disruptive value that MEMS timing devices bring to a market where quartz has hit a wall in terms of scalability and flexibility. Discera's silicon resonators, which are here now and ready for commercial use by electronics manufacturers, overcome this last hurdle of Moore's Law."

For years the concept of using MEMS as a replacement for quartz had been theorized by academics but there were few who thought it would be possible to overcome the challenges required for real world use. Beginning in 2001, Discera's CTO Wan-Thai Hsu and his team moved the technology far beyond academic research, focusing on solving real world problems (temperature compensation, reliability and packaging). Under Hsu's technical vision and guidance, Discera developed, qualified and began producing silicon MEMS devices for timing applications in high volume.

The result of years of concentrated research and development, Discera's MOS1 family of oscillators is poised to enable electronics companies to overcome the challenges posed by quartz crystal technology, which is pushing the limits of its scalability, costs and processing technology. The promise of reduced costs and smaller product footprint offered by MEMS has, until now, been offset by concerns about silicon resonators and reliability. These concerns included frequency stability over temperature cycling, aging, vibration operation and shock resistance. The MOS1 oscillator product family overcomes these concerns. The MOS1 family is being used as a direct replacement of quartz crystal oscillators for timing components in electronics devices. The product is offered by a worldwide set of partners and distributors including Vectron and Abracon.

For more information The Wall Street Journal Innovation Awards, visit http://online.wsj.com/page/2_1323.html.

About Discera

Discera is a fabless analog semiconductor company that offers tiny, high performance silicon resonators for the frequency and timing control markets. These resonators act as the heartbeat or pulse for a variety of devices from consumer products such as cameras and MP3 players to specialized equipment for the military. The company's PureSilicon™ resonator technology is a fundamental building block that offers, according to Semico Research, "a better mousetrap" for creating fully integrated, low cost, small form factor wireline and wireless products, such as oscillators, filters, and RF components. Unlike crystal based oscillators, Discera's PureSilicon™ based CMOS oscillators can be integrated into other CMOS-based circuits. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in San Jose, California, Discera is a privately held company with investments from Ardesta, Partech, 3i, Qualcomm Ventures, Horizon Ventures, and Scale Ventures. More information is available at www.discera.com.

Contact Information: Media Contacts: Venkat Bahl Discera, Inc. 408-432-8600 x228 venkat@discera.com Emilie Harris Lois Paul & Partners 512-638-5321 emilie_harris@lpp.com