Cypress Introduces Portable USB 2.0 Full-Speed Flash Drive Reference Design

Enables Low-Cost Mass Storage and Data Transfer Between PCs

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 1, 2002 – Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (NYSE: CY) -- the leader in USB technology--today announced its Flash Drive reference design (CY4616) for the portable flash memory market, supporting any PC or device with a standard USB port and mass storage class capability. The CY4616 is a small mobile storage device that can be used to replace a floppy disk drive for portable storage.

"By entering into another emerging market--the portable flash drive market--Cypress extends its leadership in USB," said Jeff Chang, product marketing manager for Cypress's Personal Communications Division.  "Already the largest in the industry, Cypress's USB product portfolio continues to expand to meet its customer's aggressive demands for data storage and portability."

The CY4616 offers complete hardware and software design materials; a drive capacity up to 128 MB; write protect functionality; and Windows and Macintosh Operating Systems (OS) driver support. These features provide true "plug-and-play" capability for the PC market, enabling data storage and transfer between PCs.

The Flash Drive reference design is the first step in a two-phase project. This first phase design offers a PCB, USB microchip, connector and 128-MB flash memory in a 2-inch by 7/8-inch enclosure.  Phase two will include a larger storage capacity, higher performance and more functionality.

Pricing and Availability

Cypress's Flash Drive reference design kit is available now and priced at $199 per kit through Cypress distributors.
 

About Cypress

Cypress Semiconductor is "Driving the Communications Revolution"™ with high-performance integrated circuits for network infrastructure and access equipment. Leveraging its process and system-level expertise, the company designs and manufactures solutions targeted across wireless and wireline communications. Cypress supports a wide range of industry standards, such as SONET (OC-48, OC-192 and OC-768), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), InfiniBand™ and Gigabit Ethernet. The company's communications product lines include programmable high-speed physical layer devices (PHYs), wirespeed network search engines (NSEs) and network coprocessors (NCPs), and datapath switching elements (DSEs). Cypress is also the industry's leader in communications timing solutions, networking-optimized communications memories and personal connectivity solutions, such as USB and Bluetooth.

Cypress is a leader in pure optical and optoelectronic technologies designed to push network transmissions to higher performance levels and to satisfy the increasing demand for network bandwidth. With a focus on emerging communications applications, Cypress aims to become the preferred silicon supplier for network infrastructure solutions and for every network data stream to pass through at least one Cypress IC.

Cypress employs 4,000 people worldwide. Its shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CY. More information about Cypress is accessible on the Web at www.cypress.com.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:  Statements herein that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" involving risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to: the effect of global economic conditions, shifts in supply and demand, market acceptance, the impact of competitive products and pricing, product development, commercialization and technological difficulties, and capacity and supply constraints.  Please refer to Cypress's Securities and Exchange Commission filings for a discussion of such risks.

Cypress is a registered trademark and "Driving the Communications Revolution" and cypress.com are trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.