Cogency merges with Power Trunk

New company will accelerate time to market for power line semiconductor chipsets

Toronto, April 18, 2000 -- Cogency Technology Inc. announced today that it has undertaken a merger with Power Trunk Corporation of Ottawa, Canada. The new fabless semiconductor company will focus immediately on the development of chipsets for powerline networking, and will further leverage its skills in OFDM technology to address other emerging markets such as broadband wireless.

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Founded in 1995, Cogency has most recently been focused on advanced ASIC design services. The core of the Cogency design team emerged from the Computer Product Division of LSI Logic Corporation, and held the worldwide mandate for several core technologies, including PCI, 1394, USB, and Pentium multi-processing chipsets.

Power Trunk was founded in early 1999 by a seasoned team of engineers with several years of experience in powerline networking. The company's products, based on their Channel-Adaptive Technology, are designed to reliably transmit high-speed signals, with the highest possible quality, even over the world's most highly impaired connections. This means that power outlets or telephone jacks, not previously considered as possible network connection points, can now be utilized. Challenges facing current wireless networks are also being addressed by this technology.

"The success of any merger is ultimately measured by the level of synergy it creates," says Ron Glibbery the new company's president and CEO. "In our case, I believe this to be particularly high. The combination of Power Trunk and Cogency couples advanced system-level engineering in powerline networking, and more generally, in OFDM coding, with world-class expertise in fabless semiconductor product development. Needless to say, we're very optimistic about the future."

"The addition of Power Trunk's core architecture to Cogency's design experience allows us to address a broader set of technical issues," added Dan Rusheleau, Power Trunk's president and CEO. "Our complementary business interests provide a win-win combination." Mr. Rusheleau will assume the position of Executive Vice President and General Manager of Power Line Products for the new company.

The new company, named Cogency Semiconductor Inc., will be headquartered in Toronto with an office in Ottawa.