Trident has adopted a "fabless" manufacturing strategy whereby we contract-out our wafer fabricating needs to qualified contractors who we believe provide cost, technology, or capacity advantages for specific products. As a result, Trident has forgone the need to make the significant capital investments required for wafer fabrication facilities, while focusing resources on product design, quality assurance, marketing, and customer support.

Trident's primary foundry and packaging/testing houses are United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) and Siliconware Precision Industries Company Ltd. (SPIL). Trident purchases product in wafer form from the foundry and manages the contracting with third parties for the chip packaging and testing. In order to manage the production back-end operations and maintain our high quality standards, Trident has dedicated an extensive team and array of equipment to this area.

Trident's goal with respect to manufacturing is to increase product quality, while reducing manufacturing cost. To ensure the integrity of our suppliers' quality assurance procedures, we develop and maintain test tools, detailed test procedures, and test specifications for each product. We require the foundry and third party contractors to use those procedures and specifications before shipping finished products.