Cypress and Avnet Cilicon Net Seminar Tackles Soft Errors in Memory Devices; ``A Hard Look at Soft Errors'' Now Available Online.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 4, 2003

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:CY), a leading semiconductor provider, and semiconductor distributor Avnet Cilicon, today launched "A Hard Look at Soft Errors," a free "view-on-demand" net seminar addressing bit errors in memory device manufacturing. "Soft errors" are caused by the bombardment of alpha particles and cosmic rays during manufacturing, and are an increasing source of device failures as process linewidths shrink below 0.15 micron.

This seminar explores the causes of soft errors and presents some steps being taken by memory manufacturers to counteract soft errors and minimize their effects. Participants are introduced to the concept of "Soft Error Rate," the metric used to quantify device susceptibility to these errors, and process and design improvement techniques are considered. The presentation also includes a comparison of soft error rates for 90-nm and 130-nm processes. It is presented by Ritesh Mastipuram an applications engineer in Cypress's Memory Products Division, who has been involved with Cypress's Soft Error Task Force, new product definition and system analysis for the past two years.

The net seminar is available on-demand by visiting: http://webevents.broadcast.com/cmp/cypress/102903.

About Cypress's Memory Products

Cypress is a world-leading manufacturer of semiconductor memory devices used in a wide array of applications, including enterprise, storage and telecom networks, servers, base stations and wireless communications. The company's 72 Mbit synchronous SRAMs are the industry's first to be manufactured using a 90 nm (0.09-micron) process technology. Cypress is the industry's leading supplier of 18-, 36- and 72-Mbit QDR/DDR-based SRAMs and offers a full-range of low-power memory devices for wireless handsets.

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 Avnet Cilicon

Avnet Cilicon is the semiconductor distribution specialist division of Avnet Electronics Marketing in the Americas. Avnet Cilicon combines semiconductor expertise, technical excellence and deep market knowledge to enhance time-to-revenue for all supply-chain partners in the electronics arena. Avnet Cilicon's core competencies include materials management, technical support through Avnet Design Services, logistics support through Avnet IMS and customer-centric, dedicated sales channels. For additional information, visit Avnet Cilicon on the Web at http://www.avnetcilicon.com.

Cypress and the Cypress logo are registered trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation. "Connecting From Last Mile to First Mile" and "Cypress Connects" are trademarks of Cypress. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.