HILLSBORO, Ore. and ALLENTOWN, Pa., Dec. 12 -- Lattice Semiconductor Corp. and Agere Systems announced an agreement under which Lattice Semiconductor will acquire the FPGA business of Agere Systems for $250 million cash. The acquisition will be financed through cash on hand. Agere and Lattice anticipate closing the transaction in the first calendar quarter of 2002, subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions. It includes Agere's general-purpose ORCA FPGA product portfolio, its field programmable system chip (FPSC) product portfolio and all related software design tools. FPSCs are advanced system-oriented products that combine generic FPGA logic with embedded cores dedicated to the implementation of advanced communication protocols and high-speed input/output (I/O) functions. As part of the transaction, approximately 100 Agere product development, marketing and technical sales employees will join Lattice.