U.S. Patent for AgigA Tech on Hybrid Non-Volatile RAM

AgigA Tech Inc., a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. and a provider of high-speed, high-density, battery-free non-volatile memory solutions, announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 8,074,034, Hybrid Non-Volatile RAM, covering the primary functionality of the AGIGARAM product family.



As the inventor of the underlying technology and architecture of AGIGARAM, AgigA Tech has built up a strong IP position for high-speed, high-density, battery-free non-volatile memory. The company currently has a portfolio of 15 granted and pending patents related to designing, building and deploying non-volatile memory systems, including hybrid memory modules consisting of DRAM, flash memory, and ultracapacitors.

"We clearly have the best technical solution for high-density, high-speed non-volatile memory," said Ron Sartore, CEO of AgigA Tech. "Receiving this patent further strengthens our IP position which we believe provides a significant competitive advantage for us, our customers and our partners."

"Cypress has a history of funding internal start-ups to grow the company beyond our base business; our flagship PSoC product line is a successful example of this," said T.J. Rodgers, President and CEO of Cypress, and AgigA Tech Chairman. "Just as Cypress puts a strong emphasis on IP and patent protection, I am happy to see AgigA Tech do the same."

AGIGARAM is a new class of non-volatile memory developed to meet the need for higher-density, higher-performance memory for enterprise-class storage and server applications. By combining DRAM, Flash, an intelligent system controller and an ultracapacitor power source, AGIGARAM provides a reliable memory subsystem that runs with the latency and endurance of the fastest DRAM, and with the persistence of Flash.

Until recently, designers have reluctantly used batteries to maintain their data during power outages. Others have moved toward new flash-based technologies for memory persistence, but this option falls short of DRAM in terms of latency, speed, endurance and reliability. AGIGARAM enables fast system performance while eliminating batteries, such as hazardous material disposal, short operating life and extensive maintenance. AgigA Tech has pioneered the use of a battery-free power source based on ultracapacitor technology for this application. All Tech products utilize ultracapacitors that have gone through reliability and accelerated life testing at AgigA Tech's reliability test lab, which has been operational for nearly 4 years and continues to run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.