LSI (FRA:LOG) Gross Margin % : 51.16% (As of Mar. 2014)

LSI Corporation was incorporated in California on November 6, 1980, and was reincorporated in Delaware on June 11, 1987. The Company designs, develops and markets networking semiconductors and storage systems. It provides silicon-to-system solutions that are used to create, store, consume and transport digital information. It offers integrated circuits used in hard disk drives, solid state drives, high-speed communications systems, computer servers, storage systems and personal computers. It also offers external storage systems, storage systems software, redundant array of independent disks, or RAID, adapters for computer servers, and RAID software applications. The Company has two segments — the Semiconductor segment and the Storage Systems segment. Its semiconductor segment designs, develops and markets complex integrated circuits for storage and networking applications. These solutions include both custom solutions and standard products. It designs custom solutions for a specific application defined by the customer. The Company develops products for market applications that it defines and sells them to multiple customers. It sells its integrated circuits for storage applications to makers of hard disk drives, solid state drives and computer servers. It sells its integrated circuits for networking applications principally to makers of devices used in computer and telecommunications networks and, to a lesser extent, to makers of personal computers. Its storage systems segment designs and sells enterprise storage systems and storage software applications that enable storage area networks. The Company also offers RAID adapters for computer servers and associated software for attaching storage devices to computer servers. It sells its storage systems and storage solutions mainly to OEMs who resell these products to end customers under their own brand name. The semiconductor industry is competitive and is characterized by rapidly changing technology, short product cycles and emerging standards. The semiconductor manufacturing process begins with wafer fabrication, where a design is transferred to silicon wafers through a series of processes, including photolithography, ion implantation, deposition of numerous films and the etching of these various films and layers. On January 3, 2012, the company acquired SandForce, Inc., a provider of flash storage processors, or FSPs, for enterprise and client flash solutions and solid state drives, or SSDs. Federal, state and local regulations, in addition to those of other nations, impose various environmental controls on certain chemicals and restricted substances used in the manufacture of semiconductor and storage products.