Silicon Systems Inc. (SSi) (not to be confused with SiliconSystems, Inc.) was an American semiconductor company based in Tustin, California. The company manufactured mixed-signal integrated circuits and semiconductors for telecommunications and data storage markets.
Silicon Systems was founded in 1976[1] and became a leading supplier of disk drive controllers for personal computers, modems and tone-signal generators in answering machines, and other ICs for various applications from opening garage doors to descrambling satellite broadcast signals. The company had an annual revenue of $400 million as of 1996. It owned wafer fabrication plants in Tustin and Santa Cruz, California, an assembly and test facility in Singapore, and design facilities in San Jose and Grass Valley, California.
The company became a subsidiary of TDK Corporation in 1989.[2] In 1996 TDK sold the storage products portion of SSi to Texas Instruments (TI), and kept the communications products business for itself under the name of TDK Semiconductor Corporation (TSC).
Silicon Systems Inc. had no relation to another and more recent company named SiliconSystems, Inc. which was founded in 2003, makes solid-state drives (SSDs), and was eventually acquired by Western Digital.[3]
In 2005, the organization was purchased by Golden Gate Capital Partners and renamed Teridian Semiconductor. [4]