Cypress Envirosystems Unveils Easy-to-Install Wireless Pneumatic Thermostat That Conserves Energy and Slashes Maintenance Costs.

Retrofit Solution Allows Building Operators to Change From Legacy Pneumatic Thermostats to Digital Functionality in Minutes at One-Fifth the Cost

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Cypress Envirosystems, a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:CY), today introduced a wireless pneumatic thermostat (WPT) to reduce energy consumption and maintenance costs in older buildings with legacy HVAC systems. The Cypress Envirosystems WPT can be installed in minutes with no disruption to existing systems. It enables automatic zone-by-zone scheduling of temperature setpoint changes, automatic calibration, and remote monitoring of temperature and pressure.

Legacy pneumatic thermostats require manual setpoint control and calibration, resulting in costly maintenance and wasted heating and air conditioning of unoccupied areas. Until now, these shortcomings could only be overcome via expensive, disruptive and time-consuming replacement of the pneumatic system with a Direct Digital Control (DDC) HVAC system. DDC retrofits require the replacement of existing pneumatic pipes and terminal boxes with electrical actuators and dampers and additional cabling - at a minimum cost of $2000 per zone. The Cypress Envirosystems WPT can be installed for about $400 per zone.

"There is an enormous base of older, energy-wasting buildings that are prime candidates for new control upgrades, but most maintain the status quo due to the high cost and occupant disruption involved," said Harry Sim, CEO of Cypress Envirosystems. "With the Cypress Envirosystems WPT, there is now a very compelling way to get DDC-like benefits at a fraction of the time and expense, with payback periods of about 12 months."

An additional benefit of the WPT is the ability to control and track after-hours HVAC usage, particularly for cost recovery in multi-tenant buildings. The process of manually tracking such usage can be extremely cumbersome for pneumatic thermostats. The Cypress Envirosystems WPT has an override button for occupants and provides a detailed record of which zone was requested, a time stamp and the duration. Also, when a zone temperature crosses preset upper or lower limits, the WPT can automatically notify a maintenance staff member via cell phone or pager.

Unlike DDC systems, the WPT gives building operators the flexibility to retrofit an entire building at once, or only selected individual zones as the budget and need arises. The WPT can operate as a standalone system or can integrate with existing building automation systems from Siemens, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, TAC and others via a BACnet/IP interface.

In a related announcement, Cypress Envirosystems introduced a complete line of products that save energy and improve productivity for older commercial buildings and industrial sites. These include a wireless steam trap monitor, wireless gauge reader and wireless transducer reader. All these products use state-of-the-art, non-invasive wireless technologies to retrofit older sites with a minimum of disruption and cost, delivering payback of 12 months or less.

Cypress Envirosystems employs semiconductor solutions from Cypress Semiconductor Corp. in its products, including the 2.4-GHz wireless radios and PSoC[R] programmable systems-on-chip to interpret and process the signals.

Availability and Photo

The new Cypress Envirosystems Wireless Pneumatic Thermostat is currently available. For a photo of the WPT, visit www.cypressenvirosystems.com/media.

About Cypress Envirosystems Corporation

Cypress Envirosystems is a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor (NYSE:CY). Its mission is to save energy and improve productivity in older plants and buildings, using state-of-the-art non-invasive and wireless technologies to minimize disruption and cost, delivering payback of 12 months or less. More information is available at: www.CypressEnvirosystems.com.

About Cypress

Cypress delivers high-performance, mixed-signal, programmable solutions that provide customers with rapid time-to-market and exceptional system value. Cypress offerings include the PSoC[R] Programmable System-on-Chip[TM], USB controllers, general-purpose programmable clocks and memories. Cypress also offers wired and wireless connectivity solutions ranging from its WirelessUSB[TM] radio system-on-chip, to West Bridge[TM] and EZ-USB[R] FX2LP controllers that enhance connectivity and performance in multimedia handsets. Cypress serves numerous markets including consumer, computation, data communications, automotive, industrial, and solar power. Cypress trades on the NYSE under the ticker symbol CY. Visit Cypress online at www.cypress.com.

Cypress, the Cypress logo, Cypress Systems, the Cypress Systems logo and PSoC are registered trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. All other trademarks are property of their owners.