Cypress Takes the Lead With World's Largest Dual-Port SRAM; Family Offers 1-Mbit Density, Highest Speed, Parity, 3 V and 5 V Versions.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 10, 1998--Cypress Semiconductor (NYSE:CY) today introduced over 60 new synchronous and asynchronous dual-port SRAMs ranging in density from 64 Kbit to 1 Mbit.

The 1 Mbit device is the industry's largest, twice the density of any other true dual-ported SRAM.

Both 5 V and 3.3 V versions are offered in identical package and pinout for each density, simplifying the transition to 3.3 V. The new products come in a variety of configurations, and offer the highest performance available in any dual-port SRAM -- 100 MHz in both pipelined and burst modes.

"Over the past 18 months, Cypress has taken the technical leadership position in specialty memories -- first with our FIFO offerings, and now with these dual-ports," said Dan McCranie, executive vice president of sales and marketing. "We are enjoying market-share gains in the FIFO market, and look forward to similar results with these dual-ports."

Cypress' new dual-ports are the only high-density, synchronous devices to offer x9 and x18 word widths so users can implement parity bits for error-checking protocols. The synchronous devices also give users the ability to select either flowthrough or pipelined operation on each port, independent of the mode of the other port.

Designers can each both port to its respective processor's most efficient mode of operation to maximize performance and ease the design process. The new Cypress dual-ports offer significant power savings over competitive devices, using only 50 microamps typical standby power (250 microamps max.), approximately 75% less than competing devices.

The new synchronous devices have an on-board burst-counter that simplifies the addressing scheme by allowing the user to supply a single address that the dual-port automatically increments on each subsequent clock cycle. The counter will cycle the entire depth of the RAM and wrap around. With the burst counter feature, the overall system design is simplified by integrating a large portion of the addressing logic into the memory.

The new dual-ports are part of an aggressive push by Cypress in the specialty memory market. In 1996, Cypress introduced the Deep Sync(TM) FIFO family, the first to offer high density with industry-standard pinout and architecture. In 1997, Cypress introduced the first 1-Mbit FIFO, and followed that with an entire family of synchronous 3.3 V FIFOs earlier this year.

"We have successfully leveraged our technology strength in six-transistor memory cell architecture, which allows us to create very dense devices while continuing to utilize a true dual-ported cell in both our FIFOs and dual-ports. This has allowed us to deliver technically superior products in the specialty memory area," said Geoff Charubin, DataCom product line marketing manager for products at Cypress.

"We view this to be of strategic importance because our networking, mass storage, and telecommunications customers are now relying on large, fast dual-ports to enhance system performance to gain a competitive advantage in their end markets."

New Dual-Ports Address Market Requirements

Dual-port RAMs allow the same piece of data to be shared by multiple processors and/or busses. Two ports provide independent, asynchronous access for reads and writes to any location in memory. They are employed in mass storage systems, base stations, telecom systems, and data communications equipment. As network and bus speeds increase, users require more memory bandwidth. Larger dual-port memories provide the extra performance and use less board space and power than multiple smaller devices.

Price and Availability

The new dual-ports are sampling now, with production quantities available in August. The 1-Mbit device is offered in 128K x 8, 128K x 9, 64K x 16, and 64K x 18 organizations in 100-pin TQFP packages for both 5 V and 3.3 V versions. It is priced starting at $33 in 10,000-unit quantities. The 512K device is organized as 64K x 8, 64K x 9, 32K x 16, and 32K x 18, also packaged in 100-pin TQFPs. 10,000-unit pricing for the 512K dual-port starts at $23.

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation is an international supplier of high-performance integrated circuits with worldwide headquarters in San Jose, Calif. 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; and personal computer 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: Deep Sync is a trademark of Cypress Semiconductor Corp.

CONTACT: Cypress Semiconductor

Don Parkman, 408/943-2817

Joe McCarthy, 408/943-2902