Lattice Semiconductor Corporation
Founders
C. Norman Winningstad, Rahul Sud, Ray Capece · Founded 1983 · HQ today: Hillsboro, Oregon, United States
Lattice Semiconductor was founded by C. Norman Winningstad, Rahul Sud, Ray Capece in 1983 in Hillsboro, United States. It is now led by Ford Tamer.
Lattice was founded in 1983 in Oregon by C. Norman Winningstad, Rahul Sud, and Ray Capece. Its early Generic Array Logic (GAL) devices could be electrically erased and reprogrammed, which let engineers fix logic errors without making new chips. The company went through a Chapter 11 reorganization in 1987 and went public in 1989.
Engineer and tech entrepreneur.
C. Norman Winningstad co-founded Lattice Semiconductor in 1983. As a highly experienced tech veteran in Oregon's 'Silicon Forest,' he provided the critical early venture funding and business legitimacy required to launch a highly risky semiconductor startup focused entirely on programmable logic devices. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Intel engineer.
Rahul Sud co-founded Lattice Semiconductor in 1983. Drawing on his massive technical experience at Intel, he drove the absolutely critical innovation of using CMOS technology to create field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), ensuring Lattice chips consumed significantly less power than rival bipolar designs. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Technology executive and engineer.
Ray Capece co-founded Lattice Semiconductor in 1983 alongside Sud and Winningstad. He played a critical role in early product marketing and business development, helping establish the company's highly unique market positioning against massive giants like Intel and Altera. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Ford Tamer
President and Chief Executive Officer
Tamer is steering Lattice from a pure FPGA vendor toward a combined silicon and firmware supplier for servers. Revenue rose 42% and 62% year over year in Q1 and Q2 2026 under his leadership.
Jim Anderson
Former President and Chief Executive Officer
Revenue grew from $398.8 million in 2018 to a record $737.2 million in 2023, and Lattice went from net losses to $259.1 million of net income in 2023. Anderson left in 2024 to become CEO of Coherent.
Darin G. Billerbeck
President and Chief Executive Officer
A sale of the company to Canyon Bridge was blocked in 2017. Jim Anderson succeeded him in 2018.
Cyrus Y. Tsui
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
He bought Vantis from AMD in 1999 and the Agere FPGA business in 2002. He left in 2005.
Lattice Semiconductor was founded in April 1983 in Hillsboro, Oregon, by three semiconductor visionaries: C. Norman Winningstad, Rahul Sud, and Raymond Capece, with seed funding from prominent Pacific Northwest tech investors.
C. Norman Winningstad (1925 to 2010) was a well-known Oregon high-tech entrepreneur and founder of Floating Point Systems who served as founding Chairman of Lattice Semiconductor, helping establish Oregon's Silicon Forest as a major global tech hub.
Rahul Sud was an experienced semiconductor memory engineer who previously led high-density Static RAM (SRAM) memory development at Inmos, bringing advanced CMOS memory circuit design expertise to Lattice's programmable logic chips.
In 1985, Lattice invented Generic Array Logic (GAL), the world's first electrically erasable (EEPROM-based) programmable logic device (GAL16V8). Unlike one-time programmable fusible PAL chips, GAL chips could be reprogrammed in seconds, transforming electronic prototyping.
Cyrus Tsui served as CEO of Lattice Semiconductor from 1988 to 2005. Tsui led the company through its Initial Public Offering on NASDAQ in 1989, pioneered In-System Programmability (ISP), and grew Lattice into a premier global programmable logic leader.
In 1992, Lattice pioneered In-System Programmability (ISP), inventing logic chips that could be programmed and reprogrammed directly while soldered onto circuit boards via a standard JTAG cable, eliminating the need for expensive chip programmers.
The founders established enduring tenets of architectural elegance, power conservation, rapid reprogrammability, customer-centric application engineering, and silicon reliability.
Lattice Semiconductor proved that focused innovation in low-power, programmable CMOS logic could create an enduring, highly profitable corporate franchise, providing the foundational silicon control anchors that power modern global electronics.
It was founded by C. Norman Winningstad, Rahul Sud, and Ray Capece. Sud (a former Intel engineer) was highly critical because he pushed the aggressive adoption of CMOS technology. Winningstad was a massive, highly respected veteran of the Oregon tech scene who provided the crucial early legitimacy and venture funding required to get the incredibly risky hardware startup off the ground.
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