SemiSouth Appoints Vess Johnson
as President and CEO

Former Nascentric, Magma Design Automation,
Silicon Metrics and Omniview Executive Brings
Industry Management Expertise

AUSTIN, Texas, January 18, 2008 — SemiSouth, Laboratories Inc., a silicon carbide (SiC) based semiconductor company, announced today the appointment of Vess Johnson President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO).  As an industry leader, SemiSouth specializes in SiC materials and electrical components for high-power, high-efficiency, harsh-environment power management and conversion applications.

Johnson will leverage his 18 years of industry experience to drive execution, build image and awareness for SemiSouth and grow the business.  Prior to SemiSouth, Johnson was President and CEO of Nascentric, a supplier of high-speed circuit simulation products.  In this role Johnson was able to establish early partner relationships with companies throughout the US, Europe and Asia such as Infineon, ST Microelectronics, ARM, TSCM, Chartered and AMD. 

Johnson was also president and CEO of Silicon Metrics Corporation, the industry leader in characterization and modeling of foundation IP for IC design. Johnson oversaw the company's acquisition by Magma Design Automation (Nasdaq: LAVA) in October 2003 and continued to serve as the general manager when the company became Magma's Silicon Correlation Division. Under his direction, the division expanded its customer base by 20 percent and achieved 150 percent of sales targets. 

"Vess has a proven record of success with venture funded start ups," said Mike Mazzola, SemiSouth Board Member and co-founder. "Leveraging his years of executive management and start-up experience he brings a fresh vision for leading the Company to the next level."   Co-founder  and COO Dr. Jeffrey B. Casady explained, "This is an exciting addition for SemiSouth, and the culmination of a multi-year plan.  We have produced very advanced SiC JFETs and epitaxy in our new fab that has excited our customers.  Now is the time to increase our market footprint.  Vess is the right person to lead this effort and we are excited to have him on board." 

Johnson has an extensive history of executive management, including leadership positions at Nascentric, Magma Design Automation, Silicon Metrics, Omniview Design Automation and Xynetix as well as being a co-founder of Cellular Sessions.  He received his BS and BA degrees from Mississippi State University and his MS in Computer Science from the Bagley School of Engineering, also at MSU.