Cypress Samples World's First 72-Mbit QDR SRAMs.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 22, 2004

Highest-Density, Highest-Bandwidth Devices Dramatically Expand the

Capabilities of Network Switching and Routing Systems, Wireless

Basestations and Test Equipment

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:CY), an industry leader in SRAMs, today announced it has begun sampling a new family of 72-Mbit QDR(TM)-II (Quad Data Rate) and DDR-II (Double Data Rate) devices -- the world's highest-density and highest-bandwidth SRAMs. Cypress's new memory chips deliver up to 50 percent more system-level bandwidth and accelerate read/write capabilities in a variety of data-intensive applications, including switches, routers, servers, storage appliances, wireless basestations and test equipment.

"Until now, manufacturers could not get QDR SRAMs larger than 36 Mbits, and the burst-of-two (B2) architecture has been limited to 200 MHz," said Tony Alvarez, vice president of Cypress's Memory Products Division. "Cypress's 72-Mbit QDR devices will shatter these performance milestones, giving manufacturers the density and robust performance they need to expand network capabilities and offer more services. The devices will operate at clock speeds up to 250 MHz and provide up to 36 Gbps of bandwidth."

"For the second time in recent months, Cypress has leapfrogged the competition at 72 Mbit," said Betsy Van Hees, senior analyst at iSuppli Corp., referring to the company's 72-Mbit synchronous SRAM samples, announced last July. "The timing couldn't be better, with datacom and networking sectors showing new signs of growth.

"This announcement," Van Hees continued, "should help Cypress build upon its strong position in SRAMs, where it is currently one of the world's top suppliers, with approximately 14 percent market share."

Cypress's new CY7C15XXV18 family of SRAMs supports the LA-1 bus interface, used by a wide array of network processors, including Intel's(R) IXP family and the DDR-II SRAM interface used by such network processors as Agere Systems' PayloadPlus(R). The devices increase bandwidth by supporting separate data inputs and outputs for simultaneous read and write operations. Their low initial latency -- 1.5 cycles for QDR-II and one cycle for QDR -- maximizes the efficiency of algorithmic look-up tables, statistics tracking and data buffering.

In addition to superior performance, Cypress's 72-Mbit devices also offer several key form factor characteristics, including a 165 fBGA package, which is 40 percent smaller than alternative solutions. The devices are also pin-compatible with products from other QDR Co-Development Team members, including IDT, NEC, Renesas and Samsung, and those from former member Micron, which are now being offered by Cypress. They are manufactured using Cypress's industry-leading 90 nm process technology.

Availability

Cypress's CY7C15XXV18 family will be sampling five core configurations by the middle of this year, with production starting in late 2004. The CY7C1512V18, sampling today at 200 MHz, is a QDR-II B2 device configured as 4Mx18. A 250 MHz version of the part will be available by mid-year. Another 250 MHz QDR-II B2 device, the CY7C1525V18, is configured as 8Mx9 and will begin sampling by Q3. Three additional devices will begin sampling in the second and third quarters, including the CY7C1515V18, a QDR-II B4 device configured as 2Mx36; the CY7C1518V18, a 4Mx18 DDR-II B2 device; and the CY7C1523V18, a DDR-II SIO device configured as 4Mx18.

Photo

A photo of Cypress's CY7C15XXV18 family of products can be downloaded from: http://www.cypress.com/support/link.cfm?mr=72mqdr.

About Cypress

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:CY) is Connecting From Last Mile to First Mile(TM) with high-performance solutions for personal, network access, enterprise, metro switch and core communications-system applications. Cypress Connects(TM) using wireless, wireline, digital and optical transmission standards, including USB, Fibre Channel, SONET/SDH, Gigabit Ethernet and DWDM. Leveraging its process and system-level expertise, Cypress makes industry-leading physical layer devices, framers and network search engines, along with a broad portfolio of high-bandwidth memories, timing technology solutions and reconfigurable mixed-signal arrays. More information about Cypress is accessible online at www.cypress.com.

About QDR

In 1999, the QDR SRAM Co-Development Team was created to define a new family of SRAM architectures for high-performance communications applications. Participating companies work closely together to ensure multiple sources for the new QDR SRAMs by developing pin- and function-compatible products. The QDR family of SRAM products incorporates extensive input from networking industry leaders. QDR SRAM devices have two ports running independently at twice the rate of conventional synchronous memories, resulting in four data items per clock cycle. The QDR SRAM family of products includes Quad Data Rate and Double Data Rate common and separate I/O definitions. Depending on the application, products in the QDR SRAM family can more than double SRAM device efficiency per pin.

Cypress, the Cypress logo are registered trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. "Connectivity from Last Mile to First Mile" and "Cypress Connects" are trademarks of Cypress Quad Data Rate" SRAM and QDR" SRAM comprise a new family of products developed by Cypress, IDT, NEC, and Samsung. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.