Ramtron extends serial memory portfolio with new 512Kb FRAM

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO — September 5, 2006 — Ramtron International Corporation (Nasdaq: RMTR), a leading developer and supplier of nonvolatile ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) and integrated semiconductor products, today expanded its portfolio of serial memory products with the launch of the FM24C512, a half megabit nonvolatile FRAM product with an industry standard 2-wire serial interface. The FM24C512 is targeted for use in applications that require high capacity data collection such as utility metering and real-time configuration storage.

"The FM24C512 provides our 256Kb FRAM customers with a footprint-compatible upgrade path that doubles their data collection capacity,” says Mike Alwais, Ramtron VP of Marketing. “In particular, many of our metering customers have asked for more FRAM storage capacity to support the trend of collecting more energy consumption data. Having supplied 256Kb FRAM products for the largest metering installation in the world, and with new advanced metering infrastructures on the horizon, the 512Kb FRAM is a natural extension of our offerings to the meter market.”

Product Features
The FM24C512 is a 512Kb nonvolatile RAM with a 2-wire interface that is pin-compatible with industry standard 24C512 EEPROMs for ease of development. The device performs read and writes at bus speeds up to 1MHz for NoDelay™ writes, and operates from a 5-volt power supply, drawing 250 micro amps for reads and writing at 100 kHz. This half megabit FRAM offers 45 years of data retention and is rated over the industrial temperature range of -40C to +85C.

Product Benefits
Ramtron’s FM24C512 is optimized for data collection applications: It reads and writes continuously at bus speeds of up to 1MHz with over 10 billion writes. Similar EEPROM devices require long write delays, polling software, and have endurance limited to less than 1 million write cycles. In addition, this new device features low operating currents.

Pricing and Availability
Samples of the FM24C512 are currently available in an 8-pin EIAJ SOIC package, with pricing starting at $7.42 in 10K quantities.

For a 300-dpi product photo, visit www.ramtron.com/doc/Press/Images.asp

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