BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Policies)	3 Months Ended
	Apr. 03, 2016
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Fiscal Years	Fiscal Years Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (“Cypress” or the “Company”) reports on a fiscal-year basis. The Company ends its quarters on the Sunday closest to the end of the applicable calendar quarter, except in a 53-week fiscal year, in which case the additional week falls into the fourth quarter of that fiscal year. Fiscal 2016 has 52 weeks and Fiscal 2015 had 53 weeks. The first quarter of fiscal 2016 ended on April 3, 2016 and the first quarter of fiscal 2015 ended on March 29, 2015.
Basis of Presentation	Basis of Presentation In the opinion of management, the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements contain all adjustments of a normal, recurring nature, which are necessary to state fairly the financial information included therein. These financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included in Cypress's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2016. The year-end condensed balance sheet data was derived from audited financial statements, but does not include all disclosures required by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. On March 12, 2015, the Company completed the merger (“Merger”) with Spansion Inc. ("Spansion") pursuant to the Agreement and Plan of Merger and Reorganization, as of December 1, 2014 (the "Merger Agreement"), for a total consideration of approximately $2.8 billion. Consequently, the financial condition and results of operations includes the financial results of legacy Spansion beginning March 12, 2015. The comparability of our results for the first quarter of fiscal 2016 to the same period in fiscal 2015 is significantly impacted by the Merger. Certain balances included in the Condensed Consolidated Statement of Operations and Condensed Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows for prior periods have been reclassified to conform to the current period presentation. The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”) requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the financial statements and accompanying notes. Actual results could differ from those estimates. The condensed consolidated results of operations for the three months ended April 3, 2016 are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the full fiscal year.
Revenue Recognition	Revenue Recognition The Company has historically recognized a significant portion of revenue through distributors at the time the distributor resold the product to its end customer (also referred to as the sell-through basis of revenue recognition) given the difficulty in estimating the ultimate price of these product shipments and amount of potential returns. The Company continuously reassesses its ability to reliably estimate the ultimate price of these products and, over the past several years, has made investments in its systems and processes around its distribution channel to improve the quality of the information it receives from its distributors. Given these ongoing investments, and based on the financial framework we use for estimating potential price adjustments, during the three months ended April 3, 2016 and March 29, 2015, we recognized an incremental $9.4 million and $33.5 million of revenue respectively, on additional product families for which revenue was previously recognized on a sell-through basis as it determined that it could reasonably estimate returns and pricing concessions at the time of shipment to distributors. This change resulted in a reduction in net loss of $3.1 million or $0.01 per basic and diluted share for the three months ended April 3, 2016 and a reduction in net loss of $17.5 million or $0.09 per basic and diluted share for the three months ended March 29, 2015.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements	Recent Accounting Pronouncements The following are the accounting pronouncements issued but not adopted that may materially affect the Company’s consolidated financial statements: In May 2014, the Financial Accounting Standard Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standard Update (“ASU”) 2014-09, "Revenue from Contracts with Customers." This standard update outlines a single comprehensive model for entities to use in accounting for revenue arising from contracts with customers and supersedes most current revenue recognition guidance. The guidance is effective for annual reporting periods including interim reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017. Early adoption is permitted for annual reporting periods including interim reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2016. As the new standard will supersede substantially all existing revenue guidance affecting the Company under GAAP, it could impact revenue and cost recognition on sales across all the Company's business segments, in addition to its business processes and its information technology systems. In March 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-08 which clarifies and provides operational and implementation guidance regarding principal and agent considerations. In April 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-10 which clarifies and provides guidance regarding identifying performance obligations and the licensing implementation guidance, while retaining the related principles for those areas as discussed in ASU 2014-09. The Company is currently evaluating the impact, if any, the adoption of this guidance will have on its consolidated financial statements. In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-02, “Leases (Topic 842).” The core principle of Topic 842 is that a lessee should recognize the assets and liabilities that arise from leases. All leases create an asset and a liability for the lessee in accordance with FASB Concepts Statement No. 6, Elements of Financial Statements, and, therefore, recognition of those lease assets and lease liabilities represents an improvement over previous GAAP, which did not require lease assets and lease liabilities to be recognized for most leases. This ASU is effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2018. Early adoption is permitted. The recognition, measurement, and presentation of expenses and cash flows arising from a lease by a lessee have not significantly changed from previous GAAP. The Company is currently evaluating the impact the guidance will have on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and related disclosures. In March 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-05, “Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815): Effect of Derivative Contract Novations on Existing Hedge Accounting Relationships,” a consensus of the FASB Emerging Issues Task Force. The new guidance clarifies the hedge accounting impact when there is a change in one of the counterparties to the derivative contract – i.e., a novation. The new guidance clarifies that a change in the counterparty to a derivative contract, in and of itself, does not require the de-designation of a hedging relationship. An entity will, however, still need to evaluate whether it is probable that the counterparty will perform under the contract as part of its ongoing effectiveness assessment for hedge accounting. Therefore, a novation of a derivative to a counterparty with a sufficiently high credit risk could still result in the de-designation of the hedging relationship. The new guidance will be effective for public business entities in fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2016, including interim periods within those years. The Company is currently evaluating the impact the guidance will have on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and related disclosures. In March 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-07, “Investments – Equity and Joint Ventures (Topic 323): Simplifying the Transition to the Equity Method of Accounting.” The new guidance requires that the equity method investor add the cost of acquiring the additional interest in the investee to the current basis of the investor’s previously held interest and adopt the equity method of accounting as of the date the investment becomes qualified for equity method accounting. Therefore, upon qualifying for the equity method of accounting, no retroactive adjustment of the investment is required. Also, for an available for sale investment, the Company should recognize through earnings the unrealized holding gain or loss in accumulated other comprehensive income at the date the investment becomes qualified for use of the equity method. The new guidance will be effective for fiscal years and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2016. The Company does not believe the adoption of the guidance will have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements upon adoption. In March 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-09, “Compensation – Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting.” ASU 2016-09 simplifies several aspects of the accounting for share-based payments transactions, including the income tax consequences, classification of awards as either equity or liabilities, and classification on the statement of cash flows. For public entities, ASU 2016-09 is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2016, and interim periods within those fiscal years. Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the potential impact of adopting this guidance on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.
Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements	Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncement In February 2015, the FASB issued ASU 2015-02, Amendments to the Consolidation Analysis, which is intended to improve upon and simplify the consolidation assessment required to evaluate whether organizations should consolidate certain legal entities such as limited partnerships, limited liability corporations, and securitization structures. The new accounting guidance is effective for interim and fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2015 and interim periods within those fiscal years, with early adoption permitted. If adopted in an interim period, this ASU must be reflected as of the beginning of the fiscal year that includes that interim period. The Company has adopted ASU 2015-02 and this adoption did not have any effect on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

Disclosure of accounting policy for revenue recognition. If the entity has different policies for different types of revenue transactions, the policy for each material type of transaction is generally disclosed. If a sales transaction has multiple element arrangements (for example, delivery of multiple products, services or the rights to use assets) the disclosure may indicate the accounting policy for each unit of accounting as well as how units of accounting are determined and valued. The disclosure may encompass important judgment as to appropriateness of principles related to recognition of revenue. The disclosure also may indicate the entity's treatment of any unearned or deferred revenue that arises from the transaction.