Tower Semiconductor, Ltd., a Challenge Fund II portfolio company, a pure-play independent specialty wafer foundry, and CopperGate Communications Ltd., a Challenge Fund II portfolio company, announced today the production start of CopperGate's newest home networking modem controller. The new device implements the HomePNA 3.1 and ITU G.9954 standards, which will bring higher performance and superior quality to home networking using existing wires.  CopperGate's new product is implemented using Tower's Fab2 0.18-micro process. Design and manufacturing services for the product are provided by Open-Silicon, a leading third party ASIC house.

"With Tower's state-of-the-art manufacturing process and effective technical support, we were able to implement this challenging and complex networking product in record time, while attaining excellent performance numbers," said Gabi Hilevitz, CEO of CopperGate. "We are very happy with the mode of cooperation from Tower and look forward to a long-term business relationship."