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Austin's Cicada Semiconductor Corp. is preparing for its first product by expanding into 6,200 more square feet and hiring more sales and marketing employees.
Cicada is a fabless semiconductor firm whose chip is touted as enabling faster ethernet connections. A fabless company designs chips but outsources manufacturing of wafers.
The market for gigabit ethernet, where Cicada hopes to sell its chip, is growing by 300 percent a year, according to Cahners In-Stat Group. The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based research firm estimates the growth will extend until 2004 as the availability of lower-cost networking devices rises.
Nick van Bawl, president and CEO of Cicada, says he envisions a growth rate of more than 200 percent...