SST EXPANDS EMBEDDED MASS STORAGE PORTFOLIO WITH NEW ATA-DISK MODULE FAMILY.

SST (Silicon Storage Technology, Inc.)(Nasdaq:SSTI), has introduced its ATA-Disk Module (ADM) Family. Designed to complement the company's successful ATA-Disk Chip (ADC) products, the new ADM products are ATA/IDE protocol-compatible solid-state mass data storage products housed in a multi-chip module. SST's ADM products are designed to serve as a replacement for conventional magnetic IDE hard disk drives in standard PC motherboards. The ADM product family is well suited for applications such as set-top boxes, thin client systems, network computers, Internet appliances and other PC-based systems, since it allows designers to offer new and expanded functionality while still enabling cost effective designs.

Many consumer PC-based systems, such as set-top boxes, require low-power, reliable and cost-effective embedded mass storage. Due to these requirements, a conventional magnetic IDE hard disk drive is not always the most suitable embedded storage solution since it is often an "overkill" for the capacity actually required by the application. Offered in a density range of 8 MByte to 128 MByte, SST's ADM products provide complete IDE hard disk drive functionality and compatibility, yet at the same time more rugged and economical embedded mass data storage.

SST's ADM products are extremely easy to integrate as they plug directly into standard IDE connectors commonly found in desktop or portable PC systems. The ADMs integrate a standard 40- or 44-pin connector that mounts on top of a standard male IDE connector commonly found on system motherboards. In addition, SST's ADM products have built-in microcontroller and file management firmware that communicates with the ATA standard interface, therefore, the ADMs do not require additional or proprietary host software, such as Flash File System (FFS) or Memory Technology Driver (MTD) software. The ATA driver is a standard part of all major operating systems such as Windows 95/98/2000/NT/CE, MAC, Linux, UNIX, etc. and no additional BIOS or OS modification is necessary.

"Customers have successfully used our ATA-Disk Chip products and have asked us for a format of this product that they can use on existing or off-the-shelf motherboards," said Samuel Nakhimovsky, product marketing manager, subsystem products, SST. "We answered their requests with the ATA-Disk Module product family, allowing them a flexible, high-performance and easy-to-implement solution.

"In addition, today's digital electronic devices demand superior security features," Nakhimovsky continued. "Taking this into account, SST designed its ADM products with security features that match the requirements of embedded applications."

SST's ADM products are the only embedded mass data storage solution of this type that contain an integrated Write Protect (WP#) Pin, which is not normally found in an IDE connector. Therefore, customers that do their own IDE interface can take advantage of the WP# Pin feature. WP# Pin secures the information stored on the ADM from any unintentional data overwrites, such as those commonly caused by system viruses. In addition to this feature, the ADM products come with a factory-programmed, 20-Byte long unique serial identification (ID) number for extended data protection. The serial ID number prevents unauthorized duplication by allowing encryption of customer data.