Achronix Semiconductor Corporation announces the appointment of Rick Cassidy to the Achronix board of directors. Cassidy currently serves as Senior Vice President of TSMC, CEO and President of TSMC Arizona and brings over 30 years of semiconductor experience and strategic foundry operations expertise to the Achronix Board of Directors.
Cassidy joined TSMC North America in 1997 as Vice President of Account Management and was promoted to President and CEO of TSMC North America in 2005. In 2008, Cassidy was appointed Corporate Vice President of TSMC, responsible for the North American region and promoted to Senior Vice President in 2014. He also serves on the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) board of directors. Early in his career, Cassidy served as an officer in the U.S Army. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point.
“Rick is a renowned industry expert, and we are thrilled to have him join our Board of Directors. His technology and business expertise at TSMC, the world’s leading foundry and an important strategic partner to Achronix, will add significant value to our team,” said Robert Blake, President and CEO of Achronix. “He will be instrumental in helping guide Achronix’s growth strategies, which will continue to be driven by creating innovative products that leverage our patented, high-performance FPGA technology.”
In 2021, Achronix began shipping its 7nm Speedster7t FPGAs and VectorPath Accelerator cards. Additionally, Achronix won and delivered multiple Speedcore eFPGA IP solutions to customers in the automotive and financial technology segments. Entering 2022, Achronix continues to focus on data-acceleration applications, which represent a nearly $10 billion market opportunity by 2025 according to Semico Research.
“Achronix is the only independent supplier of high-end FPGA and embedded FPGA IP solutions and is uniquely positioned to take advantage of emerging applications needed to process ever increasing data workloads,” said Rick Cassidy. “I’m excited for the opportunity to help shape Achronix’s growth trajectory and advance their leadership position within the high-end FPGA and eFPGA IP markets for AI, ML, networking and data center applications.”