Tuesday, February 17, 2009

SST NANDrive and SQI Flash Named Finalists for 19th Annual EDN Innovation Awards

SST Products Honored by EDN Magazine for the Second Consecutive Year

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SST (Silicon Storage Technology, Inc., Nasdaq: SSTI), a leader in flash memory technology, is pleased to announce that two of its products have been named finalists for coveted EDN Innovation of the Year Awards. The SST NANDrive high-performance, fully integrated embedded flash solid-state drive is a finalist in the Memory category, and the company's 26 Series Serial Quad I/O (SQI) family of 4-bit multiplexed I/O serial interface flash memory devices is a finalist in the Logic and Interface ICs category. Now in its 19th year, the EDN Innovation of the Year Awards recognize unique, state-of-the-art electronics products in several categories. This is the second consecutive year that SST products have been named finalists for these awards, with SST All-in-OneMemory winning an Innovation of the Year Award last year.

"We have our broadest set of categories in the history of our Innovation awards program in 2008," states EDN Editor-in-Chief Rick Nelson. "With specialization affecting everything from components to test equipment, our staff diligently worked to group like technologies for meaningful comparison and delivered an outstanding slate of finalists. The voters will face tough decisions, but without doubt, compelling products will emerge as winners."

"We are extremely proud that for the second straight year EDN has chosen SST products as finalists for Innovation of the Year Awards," said Bing Yeh, president and CEO, SST. "Our NANDrive embedded flash solid-state drive continues to gain traction in a host of applications in the computing, digital consumer and industrial markets. Demand for our 26 Series SQI devices continues to build as system designers look for ways to improve performance while maintaining a small form factor and low power consumption."

The winners of the 19th Annual EDN Innovation Awards will be announced at a dinner and awards ceremony on March 30, 2009 in San Jose, Calif.

About SST NANDrive Devices

NANDrive contains an integrated ATA controller and NAND flash die in a multi-chip package and is designed for data storage in embedded and portable applications. It has built in microcontroller and file management firmware that communicates with ATA-standard interfaces, so the NANDrive does not require additional or proprietary host software such as Flash File System (FFS) and Memory Technology Driver (MTD) software. NANDrive products are available in capacities ranging from 512 MByte to 8 GByte and support industrial temperature ranges.

By leveraging SST's proven NAND controller technology, innovative multi-chip packaging expertise and a widely used industry standard ATA/IDE interface, the NANDrive family manages all NAND flash complexities and allows designers to quickly integrate mass data storage solutions into their designs without having to make any firmware changes. Because NANDrive complies with the standard ATA protocol supported by all standard embedded operating systems, embedded system designers no longer face the risk of host software revalidation cycles. In contrast, some other solid-state mass data storage solutions require changing host-side vendor-specific software whenever there is a change in the controller or a change to new NAND flash devices. To further ease integration and reduce inventory management, SST NANDrive solves the issues of pairing a NAND controller with new NAND flash devices. This is especially beneficial as NAND flash devices continue to migrate to new process geometries every year. As an integrated multi-chip package solution, NANDrive eliminates the need for long qualification cycles when there is a change of NAND flash technology; customers need only qualify the NANDrive as a mass storage subsystem.

For more information on NANDrive please visit the SST Web site at: http://www.sst.com/products.xhtml/nand_flash_storage/.

About the 26 Series SQI Devices

The 26 Series Serial Quad I/O (SQI) family of 4-bit multiplexed I/O serial interface flash memory devices features a low pin count and enhanced serial interface architecture. With a fast 80 MHz operating frequency and a specialized instruction set, the SST 26 Series SQI flash devices target execute-in-place (XIP) applications, allowing programs to be stored and executed directly from the flash memory without the need for code shadowing on an SRAM, thus further increasing overall system performance.

The 26 Series SQI devices feature a 4-bit multiplexed serial interface architecture and up to a 320 Mbit/sec. sustained burst data rate that provides performance exceeding typical parallel flash memory and other 4-bit multiplexed I/O serial interface flash memory products in the market today. To provide additional system speed and performance, the 26 Series supports 8-, 16-, 32- and 64-Byte burst mode operation with wrap around, which reduces the memory's read access time, as well as memory index jumping, which reduces the number of input clock cycles. All products in the 26 Series family are available in both commercial and industrial temperature ranges, and use a small-outline, 8-pin package to provide a comparable design footprint.

About EDN and EDN.com

EDN serves the vital information needs of design engineers and engineering managers worldwide. EDN.com delivers a three-dimensional view of the electronics industry via news coverage, strategic business information, and in-depth technical content. (www.edn.com)

EDN is published by Reed Business Information (www.reedbusiness.com/us), the largest business-to-business publisher in the U.S. and a member of the Reed Elsevier Group Plc (NYSE: RUK and ENL) - a world-leading publisher and information provider.

About Silicon Storage Technology, Inc.

Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, SST designs, manufactures and markets a diversified range of memory and non-memory products for high volume applications in the digital consumer, networking, wireless communications and Internet computing markets. Leveraging its proprietary, patented SuperFlash technology, SST is a leading provider of nonvolatile memory solutions with product families that include various densities of high functionality flash memory components and flash mass storage products. The Company also offers its SuperFlash technology for embedded applications through its broad network of world-class manufacturing partners and technology licensees, including TSMC, which offers it under its trademark Emb-FLASH. SST's non-memory products include NAND controller-based products, smart card ICs and modules, flash microcontrollers and radio frequency ICs and modules. Further information on SST can be found on the company's Web site at http://www.sst.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Except for the historical information contained herein, this news release contains forward-looking statements regarding memory and non-memory market conditions, SST's future financial performance, the launch, design cycle and performance of new products, SST's licensing business, SST's ability to diversify its business, the transition of SST's products to smaller geometrics, and SST's ability to bring new products to market, all of which involve risks and uncertainties. These risks may include timely development, acceptance and pricing of new products, the terms, conditions and revenue recognition issues associated with licensees' royalty payments, the impact of competitive products and pricing, and general economic conditions as they affect SST's customers, as well as other risks detailed from time to time in the company's periodic reports, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007 and the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2008. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and speak only as of the date hereof, and, except as required by law, SST disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

For more information about SST and the company's comprehensive list of product offerings, please call 1-888/SST-CHIP. Information can also be requested via email to literature@sst.com or through SST's Web site at http://www.sst.com. SST's head office is located at 1171 Sonora Court, Sunnyvale, Calif.; telephone: 408/735-9110; fax: 408/735-9036.

The SST logo and SuperFlash are registered trademarks, and NANDrive, Serial Quad I/O and SQI are trademarks of Silicon Storage Technology, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

    For More Information Contact:

    Ricky Gradwohl
    Silicon Storage Technology, Inc.
    408/720-6512
    rgradwohl@sst.com