Cypress Semiconductor has launched a new line of Static RAM chips that are optimized for use in networking products, using the Cyprus No Bus Latency synchronous pipelined SRAMs, which can double the available bus bandwidth by removing the delay between read and write operations. The higher price of its chips means that they will only be suitable for less price sensitive applications, typically for use in high speed router and switch buffers, where speed is critical. The SRAMs will be available as samples to OEMs from November, with commercial production in early 1998, priced around $12 for the first SRAM 256KB 133MHz bus speed 100 pin SRAM chip. Cyprus has suffered quarter on quarter reductions in profit and revenues in the last year, although it has still remained profitable. It attributes the decline in its market to last year’s general downturn of the SRAM market, which is a 40% share of an around $600m yearly revenue.
