May 2006

Ramtron is offering what it believes is the industry’s first 8051-based microcontroller with integrated nonvolatile ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM).

The new VRS51L3074 is the first in a series of planned products leading to a microcontroller based entirely on FRAM, where FRAM will be used for program, data and register memory, eliminating the need for Flash and SRAM altogether, said Irv Lustigman, General Manager of Ramtron Canada.

Micromem Technologies, a Toronto-based developer of magnetic random access memory (MRAM), and Omron Corporation today announces an agreement to investigate viable MRAM technology.

Under the agreement Omron will evaluate the performance and suitability of Micromem's MRAM memory as it relates to Omron's extensive array of RFID products. In the initial phase of the agreement Omron will research and evaluate Micromem's MRAM to determine the suitability of MRAM for commercial applications.

The decision to enter into this technology investigative stage with Micromem is based on the potential that MRAM has for delivering some specific and useful characteristics for RFID products.
Micromem has solved many key problems associated with commercializing MRAM and has key patent filings that solve many common problems often blocking product commercialization. Micromem's unique MRAM technology creates a viable synergy between MRAM applications and products used in radar systems, satellites, sensors and RFID.

The Two-Axis Magnetic Field Sensor is patent number 7,054,114, and is the grant of a patent under the application published by the USPTO as number 2004-0137275. The invention is for a spintronic device that can detect the magnitude and orientation of magnetic fields. Applications for such devices might include Magnetoresitive Random Access Memory (MRAM), or military, industrial, and medical sensors.

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Memory research managers themselves have scaled back their rhetoric in the past, avoiding the term universal memory altogether. After a period of exaggerated claims, companies became so quiet about any progress that analysts speculated efforts had been severely scaled back in ferroelectric (FRAM), magnetoresistive (MRAM) and phase-change (PRAM) development.

But managers at Freescale Semiconductor Inc., Intel Corp. and Texas Instruments insist that those programs are alive and kicking, even as they acknowledge that the road is long and uphill for any new memory type.

Product sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006 increased 76% over the prior year to $2.80 million from $1.59 million. Total revenue, consisting of product sales and contract research and development revenue, increased 13% to $3.48 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006 compared to $3.07 million in the prior-year quarter. Income before taxes for the quarter was $978,493 or $0.21 per diluted share, compared to $349,209 or $0.07 per diluted share for the prior-year quarter. After the effect of a provision for income taxes of $358,749, net income for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006 was $619,744 or $0.13 per share. Net income for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2005 was $476,113 or $0.10 per share including an income tax benefit of $126,904 or $0.03 per share.
"We are pleased to report record product sales, total revenue, and pretax profit for the fourth quarter and fiscal year," said NVE President and Chief Executive Officer Daniel A. Baker, Ph.D. "Operating income for the quarter more than tripled, driven by strong product sales. We enter fiscal 2007 with a solid balance sheet, products that are in demand, and an excellent intellectual property portfolio."

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