Atmel Expands 2-Wire Family With Ultra-High Density
Offerings
SAN JOSE, Calif., May 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Atmel Corporation (Nasdaq:ATML) announced
today that it is now in full production on a pair of ultra-high density, 2-wire Serial EEPROM
devices.
The AT24C128 and AT24C256 devices were specifically developed and are being targeted for
the cellular phone market. In cellular phones, these devices are being used to store frequently
dialed numbers, last number called and other memory-based functions. Additional applications
include high end TV chassis, pagers, data bank watches, set-top boxes, digital cameras, and other
portable consumer applications.
These new low power AT24C128 and AT24C256 devices are organized as 16, 384 x 8 and 32,
768 x 8 bits respectively. Like the rest of the family, these devices are available in 1.8-, 2.7- and
standard 5.0-volt operations. These devices also support clock frequencies up to 1 MHz and are
being offered in the 8-pin JEDEC PDIP, JEDEC SOIC (150 mils) and EIAJ SOIC (210 mils)
packages.
``For new generation digital phones being introduced in the U.S., based either on CDMA or
TDMA technologies, designers now have a choice in terms of using these new Serial EEPROM
devices instead of the Parallel EEPROM equivalent,'' said Sudeep Balain, Director of Marketing
for Serial EEPROMs. ``Without these devices, designers were compelled to use the equivalent
Parallel densities even when they wanted to trade faster speeds of Parallel EEPROMs with the
inherent advantages of smaller footprints and lower power consumption rates of Serial
EEPROMs'', explained Balain.
``We're already seeing new GSM designs in Europe and Asia and PDC and PHS phones in Japan
coming to market, which incorporate these new devices,'' added Balain.
These new ultra-high, dense Serial EEPROM devices also offer designers another advantage --
they are plug-in replacements for previous generation lower density circuits offered from Atmel.
Manufacturers can now upgrade their memory capacity requirements in a EIAJ SOIC package by
simply moving from 32K and 64K densities to these new 128K and 256K densities. For
customers who prefer the ultra-small, 8-pin JEDEC SOIC package, Atmel now offers a migration
path from 1K densities up to 128K densities.
Additionally, these two new devices are also being offered in the industry's new Chip Array BGA
package. ``Chip Array BGA package technology is highly customizable and offers our customers
many advantages: We can do parallel testing of our Serial devices which results in faster test times
and thus lower costs to our customers. Also, since there are no leads to deal with, there are no
bent-lead or coplanarity issues to talk about,'' added Balain.
Like the rest of the family, these devices offer a cascadable feature that allows up to four such
devices to share a common bus for designs where more than 256K density is needed. These
circuits have 100,000 write/erase cycles and 40 years data retention capability.
Atmel, the world's largest manufacturer of EEPROM circuits, Serial and Parallel combined, offers
the world's most complete Serial EEPROM product line with offerings in 2-wire, 3-wire, 4-wire
and SPI protocols. The Company is a major supplier to all battery-powered and hand-held
systems, such as portable and cellular phones, pagers, palm and laptop computers, PDAs, remote
control units, TVs and VCRs, cameras and other systems where small size and low power
performance is critical.
Prices for the AT24C128 in SOIC package start at $2.85 each in quantities of 10,000 units.
Prices for the AT24C256 in SOIC package start at $3.85 each in quantities of 10,000 units.
Headquartered in San Jose, California, with principal manufacturing facilities in Colorado Springs,
Colorado and in Rousset, France, Atmel designs, develops, manufactures, and markets on a
worldwide basis Flash, EEPROMs, and EPROMs, as well as programmable logic,
microcontrollers, and application-specific devices. Atmel product and financial information can be
retrieved from its Fax-on-Demand service. In North America call
800-29-ATMEL/800-292-8635. International, from a fax phone, call 408-441-0732. You can
send your request via e-mail to literature@atmel.com or visit Atmel's Web site at
atmel.com
SOURCE: Atmel Corp.
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