Simtek Corporation
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Semiconductor |
| Founded | 1987 |
| Fate | Acquired by Cypress Semiconductor in September 2008 |
| Headquarters | Colorado Springs, Colorado , United States |
Key people | Harold A. Blomquist (CEO from 2005), Douglas Mitchell (former CEO) |
| Products | nvSRAM, NOVRAM (non-volatile RAM) |
| Parent | Cypress Semiconductor (from 2008) |
Simtek Corporation, headquartered in Colorado Springs, CO, was an early innovator in SONOS memory technology, which it incorporated into its nvSRAM series by integrating SONOS Flash memory with SRAM shadow memory to achieve both rapid access and data retention without power. Operating as a fabless semiconductor firm, Simtek contracted wafer fabrication to manufacturers including Chartered Semiconductor, DongBu HiTek, and Cypress. The company was ultimately acquired by Cypress Semiconductor in September 2008.
History
Established in 1987, Simtek introduced the NOVRAM, a type of non-volatile RAM that combined the speed of SRAM with the persistence of EEPROM. This architecture enabled swift transfer of data from SRAM to EEPROM during power outages by exploiting the device’s internal parallel processing capabilities.
Business affairs
Simtek launched its initial public offering on NASDAQ under the ticker 'SMTK' in March 1991. Harold A. Blomquist took over as CEO in 2005, following Douglas Mitchell. In 2008, Cypress Semiconductor purchased Simtek for $46 million. Before the acquisition, Simtek had quarterly revenues of $7.5 million but reported a net loss of $2.7 million. Cypress pledged to maintain support for Simtek’s product portfolio after the takeover.
That same year, the company adopted the new name AgigA Tech Inc.