SiliconBeat

PLX Technology announced the hiring Ralph Schmitt as its new chief executive Monday. He’s replacing Michael Salameh, who has been CEO since co-founding the company in 1986, according to an SEC filing today.

Schmitt, a Cypress Semiconductor marketing executive from 1999 to 2005 when he left to become CEO of Sipex, an analog semiconductor company which merged with Exar, a fabless semiconductor company, in August 2007. In 2008 he left to work as an independent consultant in venture capital and acted as CEO of Legend Silicon, a privately funded Chinese terrestrial digital TV semiconductor company on whose board he remains.

He’ll be paid an annual salary of $350,000, according to his offer letter, and a $70,000 signing bonus, which he must give back entirely if he resigns or is terminated with a year of his hiring. He was also given a stock option grant good for 500,000 shares to be priced “on the first business day of December 2008.” To be determined is the size of the company’s “variable compensation” plan for 2009.

As for the outgoing CEO, Salameh will “continue as a full-time employee for a short transition period and then continue to serve as a member of the board.