Ramtron FRAM Memory Achieves Automotive Qualification Standard; AEC Q100 Milestone Demonstrates FRAM's World-Class Reliability

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.--Oct. 1, 20048, 2004--Ramtron International Corporation , the leading supplier of nonvolatile ferroelectric semiconductor products, today announced that its FM25640 64Kb serial SPI FRAM product is now qualified under the Automotive Electronic Council's Stress Test Qualification for Integrated Circuits (AEC Q100). Ramtron currently supplies FRAM products to the automotive industry for a variety of applications, including smart airbag, instrumentation and entertainment systems. Achieving AEC Q100 qualification is expected to allow FRAM products to gain wider acceptance in mainstream automotive system applications and reduce design-in cycles for certain automotive systems. Ramtron plans to continue qualifying selected FRAM products under the AEC Q100 standard.

"Qualifying under AEC Q100 demonstrates that Ramtron is committed to meeting the demanding requirements of automotive customers," said Ramtron Vice President Mike Alwais. "Today's automotive systems are increasingly demanding, and no other nonvolatile memory solution can match the write speed and high endurance of FRAM products."

FRAM's fast read/write and high-endurance features solve a wide variety of automotive system design challenges, such as distinctive resume-play functions in automotive entertainment gear. FRAM stores scene changes and unique user data upon power-down, enabling users to continue where they left off when the unit is powered back up. FRAM is also revolutionizing data collection in a new breed of smart airbag systems, allowing more data to be collected more frequently, thereby enhancing system intelligence and deployment effectiveness.

About the FRAM memory and the FM25640

FRAM technology provides the first true nonvolatile RAM. The FM25640 is a 64Kb SPI interface FRAM memory product that operates as a RAM while providing nonvolatile data storage. Read and write access times are equal, with the technology providing over one-trillion read/write cycles. With the FM25640, there are a far greater number of write cycles without wear-out, compared with similar EEPROMs, and much faster writes. As a result, customers are able to collect and store data and configurations more often with lower total cost and system overhead.

About AEC Q100

In 1994, the Automotive Electronics Council (AEC) established the AEC Q100 qualification standard, which is today recognized worldwide as a required standard in supplying mainstream automotive customers. The AEC Component Technical Committee is the standardization body for establishing standards for reliable, high-quality electronic components. Components meeting its specifications are suitable for use in the harsh automotive environment without additional component-level qualification testing. For more information, please visit http://www.aecouncil.com/

About Ramtron

Ramtron International Corporation is the leading supplier of nonvolatile ferroelectric semiconductors including serial and parallel ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) devices and Processor Companion devices that integrate a variety of commonly needed discrete analog and mixed-signal functions for processor-based systems. Ramtron's patented FRAM technology allows devices to perform the functions of both RAM and nonvolatile memory in a single chip. Its unique benefits are revolutionizing memory-based designs in a variety of automotive, communications, computing, consumer, industrial control, medical, and metering applications. Additionally, Ramtron works with various leading-edge licensees and manufacturers to bring its technology to market. For more information, visit www.ramtron.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 Ramtron's Securities and Exchange Commission filings for a discussion of such risks.