SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (NYSE:CY) today announced the appointment of Mark A. Ross as chief technology officer (CTO), reporting directly to T.J. Rodgers, president and CEO. Ross is charged with developing new product ideas, improving the new product design process, evaluating and integrating technologies and intellectual properties acquired by Cypress, and generating and implementing patent-eligible technologies. "Mark Ross brings to Cypress a valuable combination -- a knowledge of chips, processes, and systems and an awareness of the customer's perspective," said T.J. Rodgers. "We're looking forward to the positive impact he will have in bringing a stronger system and process orientation to product design, as well as a vision of how customers will implement our products." Ross had been directly responsible for shipping silicon or systems for the communications and computation markets that contributed over $1 billion in revenue at Cisco Systems and Sun Microsystems. At Cisco, he pioneered the development and use of ternary content-addressable memories (TCAMs) in communications systems, and developed the world's first Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) network interface controller (NIC) and multichannel GbE switch. At Sun, Ross developed the platform architecture of three UltraSPARC workstations and was involved in all phases of product design and introduction, including ASICs, systems, and release to manufacturing. He led a crossfunctional product launch team that included mechanical engineering, software, hardware, and marketing professionals. Cypress Semiconductor Corp.