BusinessWire
November 15, 2005 12:01 AM US Pacific Timezone

Spansion and M-Systems Partner to Develop an Innovative, Secure, Memory Design; Companies Intend to Integrate M-Systems' Flash Management and Logic IP with Spansion's MirrorBit(TM) Flash Memory

SUNNYVALE & SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 15, 2005--M-Systems (Nasdaq:FLSH), an industry leader and innovator of flash-based data storage devices, and Spansion LLC, the flash memory venture of AMD (NYSE:AMD) and Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702), today announced that the companies have signed an agreement to co-design products which integrate flash management and logic intellectual property (IP) from M-Systems with Spansion's MirrorBit(TM) flash memory offerings.

As part of this collaboration, Spansion's MirrorBit technology will be used with M-Systems' technology, which includes TrueFFS(R) flash management software, the de-facto industry standard and leading technology for flash management, SuperMAP(TM) cryptographic cores, security IP and advanced interfaces.

"M-Systems believes in strong, viable partnerships with leading companies such as Spansion for the development of innovative products. The fruit of this joint collaboration will employ our flash memory management expertise and state-of-the-art security, in order to bring real value to our customers. We are excited about our cooperation with Spansion and believe that the jointly developed products will bring unique benefits for our target audiences, and specifically, for mobile network operators," said Dov Moran, president and CEO of M-Systems.

"Partnering with M-Systems reinforces Spansion's strategy to leverage MirrorBit technology to deliver value-added flash memory solutions to our customers," said Bertrand Cambou, president and CEO of Spansion. "Together we can enable our customers to deliver differentiated end products."

The co-developed solution by M-Systems and Spansion is planned to have an innovative, highly integrated, monolithic design combining the flash media, controller and the security core. The companies expect this level of integration will be designed to allow for enhanced system architecture, increased security capabilities and streamlined system design for a range of applications, while yielding significant production advantages as well as an optimized cost structure, better performance and security and higher reliability.

About M-Systems

M-Systems develops, manufactures and markets innovative flash-based data storage solutions for consumer electronics and embedded markets. The Company targets the fast growing multimedia mobile handset market with its DiskOnChip(R) and MegaSIM(TM) products and the popular USB flash drive market with its DiskOnKey(R) product. More information about M-Systems is available online at www.m-systems.com.

About Spansion

Spansion, the Flash memory venture of AMD and Fujitsu, is the largest company in the world dedicated exclusively to developing, designing, and manufacturing Flash memory products. In fiscal 2004, Spansion's total net sales were approximately $2.3 billion. The company offers the broadest NOR Flash memory portfolio in the industry, for use in the wireless, automotive, networking, telecommunications and consumer electronics markets. The company's portfolio is supported by a worldwide network of advanced manufacturing facilities, system-level expertise and dedicated design support, and an unwavering commitment to our customers' success. Information about Spansion(TM) Flash memory solutions is available at www.spansion.com.

All company and product names mentioned may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and are used for identification purposes only.

This press release includes forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as they are subject to various risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to vary significantly. These risks include, but are not limited to, risks related to: market acceptance; the impact of competitive products and pricing; product development; commercialization and technological difficulties; development and growth of anticipated markets; capacity and supply constraints; the effect of global economic conditions in general and conditions in Spansion's and M-Systems' industry and target markets in particular; shifts in supply and demand; timely product and technology development/upgrades and the ability to manage changes in market conditions as needed; and other risk factors detailed in the M-Systems' and Spansion's most recent respective annual reports and their other respective filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements included in this release are based upon information available as of the date hereof. Each of M-Systems and Spansion assumes no obligation to update the information in this release and disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any such forward-looking statements to reflect any change in its expectations or in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statements may be based, or that may affect the likelihood that actual results will differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Reference to above websites does not constitute incorporation of any of the information thereon into this press release.

This release contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that the forward-looking statements in this release involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the company's current expectations. Risks that the company considers to be the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements include the possibility that demand for the company's Flash memory products will be lower than currently expected; that OEMs will increasingly choose NAND-based Flash memory products over NOR- and ORNAND-based Flash memory products for their applications; that customer acceptance of MirrorBit technology will not continue to increase; that there will be a lack of customer acceptance of ORNAND-based Flash memory products; that competitors may introduce new memory technologies that may make the company's Flash memory products uncompetitive or obsolete; that the company may not achieve its current product and technology introduction or implementation schedules; and that the company will not be able to raise sufficient capital to enable it to establish leading-edge capacity to meet product demand and maintain market share. We urge investors to review in detail the risks and uncertainties in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to the company's Registration Statement on Form S-1 and AMD's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 25, 2005.