SAN JOSE, CA, Dec 11, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- Discera, a leader in CMOS MEMS oscillators, resonators, and provider of next-generation timing solutions, today announced that it has appointed Bruce W. Diamond as president and chief executive officer. Diamond brings more than 25 years of semiconductor industry experience in management and operations.

"Bruce's experience, leadership, and business skills will bring Discera's award-winning MEMS technology to its next phase of development and growth," said Jim Jones, managing director, Scale Venture Partners, and Discera board member. "The maturity of Discera's technology, its partner network, and clear cost benefits to electronic manufacturers put it in a strong position for leadership in this growing market."

"I'm very impressed by the rapid progress and unique achievements that Discera has shown with its groundbreaking MEMS technology," said Diamond. "I am excited to join the company at this stage as MEMS timing devices have been anticipated for a long time, and Discera is the leading company in the market."

Discera offers a proven and scalable alternative to Quartz crystal for timing applications. Discera's CMOS-compatible MEMS-based resonators overcome the challenges posed by quartz crystal technology and offers electronics manufacturers a more flexible, scalable alternative. Based on a recent study by Wicht Technologie Consulting, the market for MEMS-based oscillators is expected to grow more than 120 percent each year, penetrating today's $3.8 billion quartz timing market.

"We are very pleased with the addition of Bruce Diamond to Discera's executive team," said Wan-Thai Hsu, chief technology officer, Discera. "Our team will be working closely with him to build upon our successes to date, and we are confident that Bruce will be a strong leader with the vision, semiconductor experience, and industry knowledge to continue to build Discera's strength in the market."

Diamond comes to Discera from WJ Communications, a leading supplier of radio frequency (RF) solutions for wireless infrastructure, where he served as chief executive officer. Diamond helped turn the company and managed it through its recent acquisition by TriQuint Semiconductor (TQNT2.35, -0.07, -2.8%) in May 2008. Prior to this, he served as chief operating officer and executive vice president at Zilog Corporation, a San Jose, California-based publicly traded provider of integrated 8-bit microcontrollers (MCU) and universal remote control solutions. Additionally, Diamond held management positions at Sipex, ANADIGICS, and National Semiconductor Corporation. He holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

About Discera
Discera is a fabless analog semiconductor company that offers tiny, high performance silicon resonators for the frequency and timing control markets. These resonators act as the heartbeat or pulse for a variety of devices from consumer products such as cameras and MP3 players to specialized equipment for the military.

The company's PureSilicon(TM) resonator technology is a fundamental building block that offers, according to Semico Research, "a better mousetrap" for creating fully integrated, low cost, small form factor wireline and wireless products, such as oscillators, filters, and RF components. Unlike crystal based oscillators, Discera's PureSilicon(TM) based CMOS oscillators can be integrated into other CMOS based circuits. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in San Jose, California, Discera is a privately held company with investments from Ardesta, Partech, Scale Venture Partners, 3i, Horizon, and Qualcomm Ventures. More information is available at www.discera.com.