Simtek Corporation
Encyclopedia
Simtek Corporation, headquartered in Colorado Springs, CO, was an early leader in the development of SONOS
memory technology which it used in its nvSRAM
product line which featured a SONOS Flash memory
coupled with an SRAM shadow memory
to achieve both speed and non-volatility. The company was acquired by Cypress Semiconductor
in September 2008.
Simtek was a fabless company that relied on wafer foundry support from Chartered Semiconductor, DongBu HiTek, and Cypress.
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In March 1991 Simtek went public, trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol 'SMTK". Harold A. Blomquist became CEO in 2005 replacing Douglas Mitchell who had served for seven years.
The company was acquired in September 2008 by Cypress Semiconductor in a deal valued at $46M. In the quarter immediately before it was acquired, Simtek posted revenues of $7.5M and a net loss of $2.7M.
Cypress pledged to continue to support Simtek's product line after the acquisition.
SONOS
SONOS, short for "Silicon-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon", is a type of non-volatile computer memory closely related to Flash RAM. It is distinguished from mainstream flash by the use of silicon nitride instead of polysilicon for the charge storage material. A further variant is "SHINOS"...
memory technology which it used in its nvSRAM
NvSRAM
nvSRAM is a type of non-volatile computer memory. It is similar in operation to SRAMs. The current market for non volatile memory is dominated by BBSRAMs, or Battery Backed Static Random Access Memory. However, BBSRAMs are slow and suffer from ROHS compliance issues...
product line which featured a SONOS Flash memory
Flash memory
Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
coupled with an SRAM shadow memory
Shadow memory
Shadow memory describes a computer science technique in which potentially every byte used by a program during its execution has a shadow byte or bytes. These shadow bytes are typically invisible to the original program and are used to record information about the original piece of data...
to achieve both speed and non-volatility. The company was acquired by Cypress Semiconductor
Cypress Semiconductor
Cypress Semiconductor Corporation is a Silicon Valley-based semiconductor design and manufacturing company founded by T. J. Rodgers and others from Advanced Micro Devices. It was formed in 1982 with backing by Sevin Rosen and went public in 1986. The company initially focused on the design and...
in September 2008.
Simtek was a fabless company that relied on wafer foundry support from Chartered Semiconductor, DongBu HiTek, and Cypress.
History
Simtek Corporation was founded in 1987 in Colorado Springs, ColoradoColorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...
.
In March 1991 Simtek went public, trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol 'SMTK". Harold A. Blomquist became CEO in 2005 replacing Douglas Mitchell who had served for seven years.
The company was acquired in September 2008 by Cypress Semiconductor in a deal valued at $46M. In the quarter immediately before it was acquired, Simtek posted revenues of $7.5M and a net loss of $2.7M.
Cypress pledged to continue to support Simtek's product line after the acquisition.