Intel Unveils Ultra-Thin Stacked Flash Memory Technology for Cell Phones; New, Standardized Memory Packaging Enables Small, Powerful Flash Solutions for a Broad Variety of Cellular Phones

Intel Developer Forum

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 10, 2003--Intel Corporation today unveiled flash memory products for cell phones with up to five ultra-thin memory chips stacked for greater memory capacity, lower power consumption and optimal space savings. The features of the Intel(R) Ultra-Thin Stacked Chip-Scale Packaging (CSP), featuring 1.8 Volt Intel StrataFlash(R) Wireless Memory, are designed to ease manufacturers' provision of such features as camera capabilities, games and email in relatively thin cell phones.

Intel also announced that it has shipped its 2 billionth flash memory unit, a milestone underscoring the increasing role that flash memory plays in the cellular and wireless market segments. The announcements were made in a keynote address at the Intel Developer Forum in Tokyo by Darin Billerbeck, vice president of Intel's Flash Products Group.

"Stacking is quickly going mainstream in the cellular wireless market segment," Billerbeck said. "By combining our highly dense Intel StrataFlash Wireless Memory in an ultra-thin stacked-CSP, our wireless customers receive the flash density needed for their feature-rich phones, while at the same time saving space for small design footprints."

It took Intel 12 years to ship its first billion discrete flash units and only three more years to ship the next billion discrete flash units. Additionally, Intel to date has shipped more than 150 million Intel(R) Stacked Chip-Scale Packaging (Intel(R) Stacked-CSP) devices.

Early on, Intel Stacked-CSP products were designed and manufactured on a custom basis for manufacturers to offer high-end functionality on their cell phones. Today's announcement marks a new manufacturing approach to bring more stacked products to the market faster using a standard, high-volume manufacturing process. The new standard stacked flash products will enable wireless device makers to easily upgrade their designs with higher flash densities to meet additional memory and performance requirements for their wireless devices.

World Class Silicon & Packaging

Intel Stacked-CSP products use a new Intel Ultra-Thin Stacked-CSP package, an advanced wafer thinning and package technology, to obtain lower-profile package heights and more stacking flexibility. By combining 1.8 Volt Intel StrataFlash Wireless Memory with the new Intel Ultra-Thin Stacked-CSP package, Intel can offer extremely small and compelling stacked-product solutions.

These advanced stacked-CSP products will allow up to five stacked die with package heights as low as 1.0 mm. The products feature 16 bit and 32 bit buses as well as SRAM, PSRAM and LP-SDRAM options. The products will offer up to 512 Megabits (Mbits) of flash memory this year and 1 Gigabit (Gbit) of flash memory by next year, to facilitate both code execution and big data applications. They will also feature Intel's latest multi-level cell flash memory.

First introduced by Intel in 1997, multi-level cell flash memory (MLC) doubles the amount of data that can be stored in a single memory cell and provides higher density and lower cost. The 1.8 Volt Intel StrataFlash Wireless Memory is Intel's fourth generation of MLC flash technology built on leading-edge 0.13 micron process lithography. It is the world's first low-power MLC flash memory operating at 1.8 volts and significantly improves performance, battery life and space savings for wireless devices.

Pricing and Availability

Intel Ultra-Thin Stacked-CSP products featuring 1.8 Volt Intel StrataFlash Wireless Memory are currently sampling, with production volumes starting in third quarter of 2003. Pricing will vary by specific flash and RAM memory combinations.

More information on 1.8 Volt Intel StrataFlash Wireless Memory and Intel Ultra-Thin Stacked-CSP products can be found at http://developer.intel.com/design/flcomp/prodbref/251890.htm

Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom.

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. Intel, Intel StrataFlash, Intel Stacked-CSP and Intel(R) UT-SCSP are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

CONTACT: Intel Corporation
             Mary Ninow, 916/356-4870 or 916/719-8385 (Mobile) 
             mary.p.ninow@intel.com