Cypress's New MoBL SRAMS Set New Benchmark for Low-Power; 0.25-Micron Devices Offer the Industry's Lowest Power Consumption.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 7, 1998--Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:CY), today introduced a new family of micropower SRAMs with the industry's lowest power consumption.

Cypress's MoBL(tm) (More Battery Life(tm)) SRAMs dramatically increase battery life in new-generation wireless products such as cellular phones, pagers, handheld electronic games, and personal digital assistants (PDAs). The MoBL SRAMs use up to 90% less power than current standard, low-power SRAMs.

Cypress's new MoBL SRAMs operate over a voltage range of 3.3 V to 1.8 V, and dissipate an amazingly low 3 mA at 1.8 V in active mode (Icc). To lower this power even further, the MoBL architecture monitors the processor's request for data and automatically powers down into standby mode during periods of low activity.

Not only is this standby power a miniscule 1 uA typical, but there is no time delay to power-up the SRAM and transfer the next piece of data. MoBL SRAMs also offer superior performance, with access times of 70 ns at 2.7 V and 100 ns at 1.8 V over the industrial temperature range. These specifications offer no-wait-state performance for today's full-featured cellular phones. They also provide a power-saving 1 V battery backup/data retention capability.

"We have clearly set the benchmark for low-power SRAMs with the MoBL family," said Dan McCranie, Cypress's executive vice president of sales and marketing. "We have used our SRAM design expertise and manufacturing know-how to deliver a solution for our customers that is a generation ahead of other products on the market. We are already sampling these devices to major cell phone manufacturers and are receiving excellent feedback."

MoBL SRAMs are manufactured on Cypress's 0.25-micron, six-transistor cell RAM5(tm) process. They come in 7 x 7-mm 48-ball FBGA and standard 44-pin TSOP packages. The FBGAs are over 75% smaller than standard packages, reducing the size and weight of designs.

The first two MoBL devices are 2-Mbit versions organized 128K x 16 (CY62136V) and 256K x 8 (CY62138V). Cypress will follow in early 1999 with 4-Mbit versions of both organizations.

"Our customers have told us that lowering the memory power requirements is one of the key areas suppliers can add value", said Scott Harmel, SRAM strategic marketing manager for Cypress. "The 2-Mbit version is ideal for today's phones, and as more features are added next year, we will deliver the 4-Mbit versions in time to meet the expanded memory requirements."

Cypress's Broad SRAM Portfolio

Cypress is a world leader in SRAMs, providing one of the broadest selections of devices available. Cypress offers asynchronous devices from 16 Kbit to 4 Mbit (including high-speed and low-power products), a selection of industry-standard synchronous devices, and the NoBL(tm) (No Bus Latency) SRAMs that are optimized for high-performance networking applications.

Price and Availability

Both the CY62136V and CY62138V are sampling now, with full production expected by the end of the year. Pricing starts at $5.25 each in 10,000-unit quantities.

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation is an international supplier of high-performance integrated circuits with worldwide headquarters in San Jose. The company provides a broad range of products for leading computer, networking, and telecommunications companies worldwide.

Cypress's product line includes static RAM and specialty memories; programmable logic devices (PLDs); data communications products; FCT Logic, timing devices, and USB microcontrollers. Its shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CY. The company's worldwide web site is http://www.cypress.com.

Note to Editors: MoBL, RAM5 and NoBL are trademark of Cypress Semiconductor Corp.