Simtek expands AMR market penetration in Europe

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, Jan. 12, 2006 (PR Newswire) -- Simtek Corp., the inventor, pioneer and a world leading supplier of advanced nonvolatile static random access memory (nvSRAM) products announced today that Metrima has chosen its family of nvSRAMs for its new line of automatic metering systems.

Metrima designed in Simtek's STK15C88 for its unlimited reads and writes while providing immediate data protection in case of a power interruption. Simtek nvSRAM operates as a standard high speed SRAM. There are no special programming requirements to move data in and out of the nonvolatile state, making the design simple and very reliable. The new metering systems provide easy access to the collection of electricity, heating, and gas readings at a distance.

"The ability to store both program code and user data in Simtek's nvSRAM helped us develop a very efficient embedded design that was cost effective and highly reliable under a power interruption condition," said Tommy Blom, Chief Technical Officer of Metrima. "The nvSRAM allowed us to provide features such as continual monitoring of critical utility resources throughout our customer's distribution network and provide immediate remote diagnostic analysis during any delivery disruption."

"Metrima plays a leading role in providing complete solutions for the global corporate energy user through more efficient use and metering of energy resources," said Allyn Pon, Simtek's VP of Marketing. "With the worldwide global emphasis on rising energy costs, we're pleased to play a role in assisting Metrima to control costs and establish global leadership in energy conservation instrumentation."

The Simtek STK15C88 and its family members are optimized for cost sensitive systems needing immediate data protection for power interruption. Key proprietary features include the ability to immediately store volatile data automatically during power down along with read/write access speeds up to 25 nanoseconds. Compared to alternative technologies, the Simtek nvSRAM eliminates the need for both battery and battery pack; providing customers with lower cost, smaller board space, higher reliability, higher manufacturing yields, and lead-free compliance.

Since reaching the stage of full qualification of Simtek's 0.25 micron family this significant order is the first for Simtek in Sweden. It is a good example of other potential applications in industrial controls; a position that Simtek has long staked out for growth potential. In addition, Simtek has solutions to meet the needs of the environmentally conscious market since a "battery" power source is eliminated.

Simtek (www.simtek.com) provides the fastest and most reliable non-volatile memory in the market. The Simtek NVSRAM is well suited to replace SRAM, BBSRAM (Battery Backed SRAM), and FRAM (Ferroelectric RAM) and is used for storage, hard disk, copier, printer, industrial control, military, metering, telecom, medical, dotcom and automotive applications.

Metrima (www.metrima.se) is a leading player in the development, manufacture, marketing and maintenance of products and systems for multi-utility metering. Multi-utility metering means electricity, district heating, district cooling, gas and hot and cold water measurements. Metrima's offer allows customers to control their energy costs in a simple way, as well as increasing the possibility of reducing energy consumption. This is helping to improve public welfare from both a financial and environmental perspective. Metrima's customer base is made up primarily of power, district-heating and property companies in Sweden and some thirty other countries. The principal owners of Metrima are Ledstiernan and Telenor Venture II ASA.

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