SST Announces New High-Endurance, Industrial-Grade NANDrive

Ruggedized 512 MByte, 1 GByte and 2 GByte NANDrive Devices Bring Performance and Reliability to Industrial, Medical and Automotive Applications

NUREMBERG, Germany, Embedded World 2008, Feb. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SST (Silicon Storage Technology, Inc.) (Nasdaq: SSTI), a leader in flash memory technology, today announced three new additions to its NANDrive family of ATA solid-state storage devices. The new 512 MByte, 1 GByte and 2 GByte NANDrive products are capable of operating at industrial temperature ranges, making them compelling storage options for industrial applications operating in harsh environments, including medical equipment, factory automation and in- cabin automotive electronics. SST NANDrive is a high-performance, high- endurance, fully integrated embedded flash solid-state drive that provides a total solution well suited for data storage in embedded or portable applications. At a mere 12mm x 24mm x 1.4mm, NANDrive is one of the industry's smallest ATA solid-state drives. More information on the SST industrial-grade NANDrive devices will be available at SST's booth, Hall 12.0, Stand 12-245, at the Embedded World 2008 Exhibition and Conference taking place this week at the Nuremberg Exhibition Center in Nuremberg, Germany.

The new NANDrive devices are rated for operation at temperatures between -40 and +85 degrees Celsius. This temperature rating, combined with the devices' use of single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash and the inherent ruggedness of solid-state drives, makes these new NANDrive devices an ideal fit for use in applications that require a long operating life and high reliability under extreme physical conditions.

"Designers creating products for industrial and automotive markets have been looking for storage options beyond traditional magnetic hard disk drives, which typically don't perform well in stressful physical conditions," said Frank Lin, vice president, Product Marketing and New Product Development, SST. "Our new industrial-grade NANDrive devices were developed to give embedded designers a high-capacity solid-state storage solution with low power consumption and a small form factor that can withstand the temperature extremes and high-impact conditions typical of industrial and automotive applications."

About SST NANDrive Devices

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.

In addition to its ease-of-integration, SST NANDrive offers high performance along with several advanced security protection features. SST's industry-first hardware 8-bit ECC engine and its firmware programmable multi- tasking NAND interface help solve the slow performance problem that is typical when using lower cost, multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash. SST NANDrive offers a unique 20-Byte serial ID number for data encryption as well as up to four protection zones that customers can use to store boot code. By using the NANDrive to store boot code, system designers can eliminate the use of certain discrete devices, thus reducing bill of material costs.

Pricing and Availability

Samples of the industrial-grade 85LD0512 (512 MByte), 85LD1001T (1 GByte) and 85LD1002U (2 GByte) NANDrive products are available now, with volume production scheduled to begin in April 2008. In 10,000 unit quantities, the devices are priced as follows:

    -- 85LD0512 (512 MByte):  $17.25 per unit
    -- 85LD1001T (1 GByte):  $30.39 per unit
    -- 85LD1002U (2 GByte):  $57.33 per unit

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 flash memory and non-memory market conditions, SST's future financial performance, the performance of new products and SST's ability to bring new products to market that involve risks and uncertainties. These risks may include timely development, acceptance and pricing of new products, the terms and conditions 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, 2006, and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2007, June 30, 2007 and September 30, 2007. 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 is a trademark of Silicon Storage Technology, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

SOURCE SST