NEWS FOR RELEASE: 8/7/00
Contacts Mike Alwais Jeffrey Lee Paul Taylor
Ramtron Demer IR Counsel, Inc. Ampy Automation
719-481-7131 925-938-2678 x 241 +44 (0) 1778 343560
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Ampy Automation and Ramtron Announce
$65-Million Volume Purchase Agreement
Sophisticated Utility Management Program
Launches FRAM into High-Volume Sales
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO and PETERBOROUGH, ENGLAND, August 7, 2000 - Ramtron
International Corporation (Nasdaq: RMTR) and UK based Ampy Automation Digilog
Limited announced today a volume purchase agreement through which Ampy and
certain designated manufacturing subcontractors intend to purchase $65,000,000
in FRAM products over the next four years. The products were selected by Ampy
for use in various power-metering products targeted at the growing worldwide
market for more sophisticated utility distribution management. The agreement
specifies the purchase of Ramtron FRAM memory products, ranging from 4-kilobit
to 256-kilobit densities. Production of several power meter models is already
underway by Ampy, and delivery of new models incorporating Ramtron's higher-
density products is expected to begin in 2001. For more information on specific
Ampy programs in which Ramtron's FRAM products may be used, refer to
www.email.com.au/news/news.htm.
"The non-volatile, fast-write characteristics of FRAM made it the ideal memory
component for data-collection applications, such as ours," said Jonathan Elmer,
managing director of Ampy. "We have worked with Ramtron for several years and
found FRAM to be a high-performance, reliable memory technology and also
readily available from Ramtron in production volumes."
"We are delighted with this expansion of our business with Ampy, which has been
a customer of Ramtron since 1995," said Don Carrigan, vice president and
general manager of Ramtron. "In addition, this application showcases the
features of FRAM that we believe will make it a mainstream, high-performance
non-volatile memory. Our lower-density products have been used in various
metering applications during the past few years, and this earlier success lays
the groundwork for customer acceptance of our higher-density parts."
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"Ramtron expects to benefit from two converging trends," said Mike Alwais,
director of marketing for Ramtron. "The deregulation of power distribution is
now driving more sophisticated and higher performance electronics into the
meter, and the Internet is enabling the creation of a home automation portal.
The widespread adoption of these more sophisticated meter terminals creates a
new on-ramp to the Internet for the consumer, and FRAM is the ideal data
storage memory for this application."
Andy Robinson, design manager for Ampy, commented, "Utility meter products have
a long life and must perform virtually maintenance free, while providing highly
reliable usage data. In the past, it has been difficult to meet all data
collection criteria. We have been limited by memory write speed and by the
relatively low number of times that the memory could be reliably written. FRAM
solves these problems, with margin to spare."
According to Public Utilities Fortnightly, an independent utilities industry
research publication, the worldwide utility meter market is expected to grow by
at least 10 percent annually, to over $3 billion by 2002. This growth is
expected to be driven by the expansion of the power grid in developing
countries and the replacement of antiquated electromechanical meters in
developed areas.
About Ampy Automation Digilog Limited
Ampy is a leading developer and supplier of electronic power meters to the
worldwide power utility market. Ampy Automation was founded in 1962,
specialising initially in speed monitoring equipment and from the late 1970's
cashless card pre-payment systems. The company pioneered the introduction of
card readers into electricity meters. The Ampy product range has expanded to
include Polyphase meters, twin element meters, smart card meters, solid-state
credit meters, and the Mainstalk remote metering system.
In support of the above range of products, Ampy Automation has expanded its
production, commercial and research teams and now has a workforce of over 250
staff. In order to maintain its reputation for high quality and on-schedule
delivery, Ampy Automation has invested in a wide range of on-site facilities,
such as injection moulding, toolroom facilities, in-house calibration, and
certification facilities. The Ampy software development team is now one of the
largest and most experienced in the metering industry.
Home page is: http://www.ampy.co.uk
Ampy's parent company home page is: www.metering.com.au
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About Ramtron
Ramtron's patented FRAM memories are a new generation of semiconductor memory
that combine high-performance and low-power operation with the ability to store
data in the absence of power. Due to the product's unique advantages, FRAM
memories are expected to revolutionise a variety of electronic consumer and
industrial products. Current applications for Ramtron's FRAM memory devices
include electronic power meters, smart cards, test instrumentation, factory
automation, laser printers, security systems, and other systems that require
reliable storage of data without an external power source. The company also
develops and markets ultra-high -performance EDRAM memory products through its
subsidiary, Enhanced Memory Systems, Inc.
For more information about Ramtron and its products, contact: Communications
Department, Ramtron International Corporation, 1850 Ramtron Drive, Colorado
Springs, Colorado, USA, 80921. Telephone is 800-545-FRAM (800-545-3726); FAX
is 719-481-9294; E-mail address is [email protected]. Homepage is
http://www.ramtron.com
Except for historical information, the statements preceding are forward-looking
statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Investors are cautioned that
such statements are only predictions and the actual events or results may
differ materially. These forward-looking statements speak only as of this date.
The company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the results of any
revisions to the forward-looking statements made today to reflect events or
circumstances after today, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated
events.
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