Winbond Introduces the Industry's
Highest Performance Serial Flash Memories

• 25X SpiFlash Family Is First To Offer "Dual-Output SPI"
• 75MHz Operation Achieves 150MHz-Equivalent Transfer Rate
• Uniform 4KB Sectors and Space-Efficient Packaging Add Flexibility

SAN JOSE, Calif. — March 13, 2006 — Winbond Electronics Corporation America, a wholly owned subsidiary of Winbond Electronics Corporation, today announced the SpiFlash^® 25X family of serial Flash memories featuring the industry's highest performance, 4K-byte sectors, densities from 1M-bit to 64M-bit, and space-efficient 8-pin SOIC packaging. The performance and flexibility of the 25X memories make them ideal for a wide range of electronic applications including DVD/CD drives, DVD recorders, desktop and notebook PCs, LCD monitors, flat-panel televisions, WLAN devices, DSL modems, printers, disk drives, and FPGA-based designs. The first members of the 25X SpiFlash line include the W25X40 (4M-bit) and W25X80 (8M-bit).
Winbond's new 25X SpiFlash memories can access data at clock rates of up to 75MHz, compared to other serial Flash memories that typically operate from 25MHz to 50MHz. This performance can be further improved to an equivalent of 150MHz clock rate by using the 25X "Dual-Output SPI" feature, which provides two bits of data per clock while maintaining the same 4-pin SPI interface. To accommodate this, the 25X Dual-Output-Read instruction allows the SPI data "input" pin to become an "I/O" pin (see figure).

"Serial Flash memories offer significant savings in pin-count and space compared to ordinary parallel Flash," said Robin Jigour, vice president of serial Flash marketing at Winbond America. "However, the slower transfer rates have limited the acceptance of serial Flash in some applications. Winbond's new 25X SpiFlash memories help solve this problem with the highest performance available and transfer rates comparable to parallel Flash."
Application-specific controllers, DSPs, microcontrollers, and FPGAs supporting the 25X's Dual-Output feature can achieve read performance at rates comparable to parallel Flash with a 16-bit data bus. Faster transfer rates mean controllers using parallel Flash can quickly shadow or cache code to RAM and even execute code directly from the SPI interface (see figure).

"The Dual-Output SPI feature of Winbond's 25X SpiFlash memories provides an effective way for controllers in optical disk drives and other applications to increase their performance while maintaining the efficiency of the four-pin SPI bus," said SR Tsai, director of system applications, Optical Storage Business Unit of MediaTek Inc., in Hsin-Chu Taiwan.
"Winbond's new 25X SpiFlash family is the beginning of an important trend," said Alan Niebel of Web-Feet Research, leading analyst of the Flash memory industry. "Such high performance will further accelerate the migration from parallel to serial Flash, in a market expected to grow to more than one billion units by 2007."

Flexible, Compatible, Space-Efficient

The 25X SpiFlash family also features uniform 4K-byte erasable sectors and 64K-byte erasable blocks through the entire array. The small 4K-byte sectors allow for flexible and efficient memory allocation, as well as storage of parameter and configuration data typically handled by EEPROMs. The 25X devices support both top and bottom write protection, and the instruction set is superset-compatible with industry-standard "25P" serial Flash memories. SpiFlash 25X devices from 1Mb through 32Mb are offered in space-saving 8-pin SOIC packages, allowing for a common footprint across a wide density range.

Availability, Pricing

The W25X40VSNIG (4M-bit, 150mil SO8), W25X40VSSIG (4M-bit, 208mil SO8) and W25X80VSSIG (8M-bit, 208mil SO8) are currently sampling, with production scheduled for Q2. The W25X10 (1M-bit) and W25X20 (2M-bit) are scheduled for availability in Q2 2006, the W25X16 (16M-bit), W25X32 (32M-bit) and W25X64 (64M-bit) in the second half of 2006. For specific lead-time, pricing and additional information, please contact Winbond at spiflash_products@winbond.com or 1.800.677.0769, or find a Winbond distributor by going to www.winbond-usa.com and selecting "How to Buy."

About Winbond

Winbond Electronics Corporation America, based in San Jose, California, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Winbond Electronics Corporation, the largest branded IC company in Taiwan and a leading supplier of semiconductor solutions worldwide. Winbond America designs, develops, markets, and sells IC solutions to the global electronics marketplace with a strong emphasis on mixed-signal and serial Flash memory solutions for computer, consumer and communications electronic manufacturers. Winbond Electronics Corporation has approximately 3,800 employees worldwide with design centers in Hsin-chu, Taiwan; Shanghai, China; San Jose and Torrance, California; and Austin, Texas. The company can be contacted via the web at www.winbond-usa.com for Winbond America, or through the corporate homepage at www.winbond.com.

# # #
SpiFlash is a registered trademark of Winbond Electronics Corporation of America. All other product names that appear in this material are for identification purposes only and are acknowledged to be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Monica Chao, Section Manager NV Product Planning,
Winbond Electronic Corp., Hsin-Chu, Taiwan
886-3-5678168 Ext. 6097, YPChao@winbond.com.tw

Editorial contact:
Jerry Steach
CommonGround Communications
415-222-9996, steachcommonground@pacbell.net