Konstanz, Germany, August 3, 2011 - Today, Hyperstone introduces their new A2 family of SSD Flash Memory Controllers. Targeting applications such as 2.5" Serial-ATA Solid State Disks (SSD), 1.8" SATA Slim Solid State Drives (MO-297), mini-SATA modules (MO-300), CFastTM Cards (CFC) as well as embedded Flash, the A2 controller together with firmware provide highest reliability, endurance, and rigorous fail-safe features for all Single Level Cell (SLC) and Multi Level Cell (MLC) based NAND Flash Memory solutions.

This new family has emerged from the previously announced cooperation between Hyperstone and Toshiba Electronics Europe (TEE) regarding design, intellectual property, foundry and manufacturing services.

Product Highlights:

• Fully compliant to SATA 2.6 and CFast 1.0 specifications
• Hyperstone patented firmware architecture without need for external DRAM
• Up to 150 MB/s sustained read performance
• Up to 130 MB/s sustained write performance
• Up to 600 4K random write IOPS
• Host data transfer rate of up to 300 MB/s
• Native Command Queuing (NCQ)
• Power down detection for increased power cycling robustness
• Typical active current consumption at 25°C with 100% utilization during stress test operating 4 x 3.3V NAND Flashes of about 250mA
• SATA partial/slumber (about 150mA) and CFast PHYSLP (about 5mA) power modes supported
• Qualified to industrial temperature range

"Our new A2 SATA controller is designed to deliver the highest level of quality and reliability to all SATA SSD solutions. As NAND flashes are advanced with mainly cost reductions in mind, maintaining a certain level of endurance is becoming more and more challenging," said Axel Mehnert, VP Marketing of Hyperstone. "Our mission is enabling future NAND flashes, fit for use even within industrial, ruggedized applications. Partnering with Toshiba has enabled us to use advanced production processes and deliver high quality semiconductor products while focusing on firmware and system design at the same time."

"Our A2 available in a 9x9x1.2mm TFBGA 201 is probably the smallest and most power efficient 4-channel SATA controller in the market," said Mark Gunyuzlu, President of Hyperstone Inc. USA. "We can now provide SATA performance, industrial reliability and ruggedness for smaller form factor systems without requiring any volatile memory prone to power fail issues. We also expect we are delivering the best possible random read/write performance without relying on a DRAM, which is ideal for embedded applications."

About Hyperstone

Hyperstone, a fabless semiconductor and microprocessor design company, was founded in 1990 and is based in Konstanz, Germany. Together with subsidiaries in Taiwan, USA and with other worldwide partners, Hyperstone serves a global customer base. Hyperstone is a member of the CML Microsystems Plc group, traded on the London Stock Exchange. The group currently consists of eight subsidiaries and has over 170 employees. Hyperstone research and development is based in Germany and Taiwan. Industry-leading partners provide world-class wafer subcontracting, packaging, and testing services. Hyperstone's success is based on its proprietary 32-Bit RISC processor, optimized for flash handling applications.

Hyperstone's products include microcontrollers for Serial-ATA and Parallel-ATA Solid State Disks (SSD), Disk-on-Module (DoM), Disk-on-Board (DoB), embedded Flash solutions such as eMMC, and Flash cards such as CF, SD & microSD. Flash controller firmware is supplied complementary to the controllers and customized for each flash and application. Hyperstone is one of the pioneers in the flash memory controller business and owns several patents for flash handling, including wear leveling algorithms and microprocessor design.