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AMD and Alliance Semiconductor Settle Pattent Lawsuit
AMD and Alliance Semiconductor Settle Pattent Lawsuit
SUNNYVALE, CA -- December 14, 2000 --AMD (NYSE: AMD) and Alliance Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: ALSC) today announced the settlement of AMD's patent infringement lawsuit against Alliance. AMD filed the case in 1996, asserting that Alliance's Flash memory devices infringed two AMD Flash memory patents. Under terms of the settlement, both Alliance and AMD will drop their claims and counterclaims against each other and Alliance will pay AMD an undisclosed sum for past damages. AMD and Alliance will enter into a royalty bearing license agreement for future sales of two existing Flash memory products. Also as part of the settlement, the two companies have submitted to the San Jose District Court a consent judgment that finds the two AMD patents are both valid and enforceable and that certain Alliance Flash memory devices infringed AMD's patents.
In the wake of the settlement, AMD and Alliance will discuss future joint projects that could take advantage of AMD's strength in the Flash memory market, and Alliance's strength in the SRAM market.
The two disputed patents are United States Patents Nos. 5,077,691 (relating to AMD's negative gate erase technology, issued Dec. 1991) and 5,126,808 (relating to AMD's sector architecture, issued June 1992). Both are fundamental patents that were the result of AMD's early innovations in Flash memory technology and represent critical technologies required to produce competitive products in the Flash memory market today.
"This judgment clearly recognizes the importance and validity of AMD's intellectual property," said Walid Maghribi, group vice president of AMD's Memory Group. "We will continue to enforce and vigorously protect our valuable patent portfolio and we are extremely pleased that our patents have withstood an extensive legal challenge."
"I am pleased that AMD and Alliance have been able to reverse the tide from a legal battle to a potential partnership where we can both benefit from each other's strengths," said Dr. Ritu Shrivastava, vice president of technology development and general manager of Flash Products for Alliance Semiconductor. "Alliance is a leading supplier of memory products, and is one of the few companies in the world with expertise in all three major CMOS memory segments: SRAMs, DRAMs and Flash. Our resources and energies are much better spent creating new products and markets which leverage our expertise. We do not believe that the settlement will have substantial impact on our Flash product development strategy or the financial performance of our company."
About the Technology
AMD's '691 patent is a pioneering patent covering circuits and methods for erasing Flash memory cells that enable Flash memory devices to operate from only one power supply. Using this invention it became possible to make Flash memory devices which operate with a single externally supplied voltage. Prior to AMD's invention, it was necessary to supply two different voltages to separate pins on a Flash memory device.
AMD's '808 patent relates to a flash memory architecture that enables the sectors (or pages) in a Flash memory device to be addressed (programmed, read or erased) without affecting the other sectors.
About AMD Flash Memory Devices
AMD technology is employed by the world's largest producer of Flash memory devices, Fujitsu AMD Semiconductor Ltd. (FASL). AMD Flash memory products encompass a broad spectrum of densities and features to support a wide range oof markets. AMD Flash memory customers represent leaders in the automotive, networking, telecommunications, and handheld mobile terminal markets. AMD offers many Flash memory products, such as the award-winning Simultaneous Read-Write (SRW) product family; Super Low Voltage 1.8V Flash memory devices; and Burst- and Page-Mode devices. AMD developed the robust Known Good Die (KGD) program and the patented negative gate erase technology, and refined the industry-standard Fine-pitch Ball Grid Array (FBGA).
All AMD Flash memory devices are guaranteed for a minimum of one million write cycles per sector and 20 years' data retention, making them the most reliable non-volatile memory devices in the industry.
About Alliance Corporation
Alliance Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: ALSC) is a leading worldwide supplier of high performance memory and memory intensive logic products. Alliance's product lines include Static Random Access memory (SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Flash memory and embedded memory and logic products. Alliance designs, develops and markets its products to the desktop and portable computing, networking, telecommunication, instrumentation, and consumer markets. Alliance manufactures its products through independent joint venture manufacturing facilities, using advanced CMOS process technologies with line widths as narrow as 0.18 microns. Alliance was founded in 1985. Additional company information can be found at: www.alsc.com.
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