News Article May 23, 2005

Supervisors with Embedded 32K/64K Serial EEPROM Memory Expand Catalyst Semiconductor's Mixed-Signal Product Portfolio

SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 23, 2005 -- Catalyst Semiconductor, Inc. (NASDAQ:CATS) a leading supplier of high performance analog/mixed-signal solutions and nonvolatile memory, today expanded its family of supervisors with embedded EEPROM memory with new 32K and 64K devices. The CAT1320/21 (32K) and CAT1640/41 (64K) supervisors support reliable operation for microcontroller-based systems during power-up, power-down and all transitional power events.

The CAT1320/21 and CAT1640/41 product families feature a 64-byte page write operation for the serial EEPROM, and is cascadable for up to eight devices on the same I²C bus. Both devices provide a 200ms reset time-out during power up/down; and during this time, writing to the EEPROM is disabled which eliminates the possibility of data corruption. In addition, the RESET pin can operate either as a regular output, or as a manual input that is internally de-bounced..

"Catalyst supervisors with memory provide an integrated solution for designers that demand robust and reliable system operation, while providing mid-density serial EEPROM to store critical information," said Barr Karagozlu, Product Marketing. "This integrated solution, in addition to Catalyst's supervisors with 2K and 16K memory, offers our customers a cost effective solution in a small package, with five different threshold voltage selections," he concluded.

Product Features
• Five threshold voltage options: 2.55V, 2.85V, 3.0V, 4.25V and 4.55V
• Valid reset assertion down to 1V
• 3.0V to 5.5V operation
• RESET pin can be used as push-button manual reset
• 64K (CAT1640/41) and 32K (CAT1320/21) serial EEPROM
• Low power CMOS
• 400 KHz I²C interface
• Operating temperature range from -40°C to 85°C

CAT1320/21 and CAT1640/41 Applications
• Motherboards
• Home appliances
• Handheld electronic devices
• Industrial controls

Price and Green Package Availability
The CAT1640/41 and CAT1320/21 are available in 8-pin PDIP, SOIC, TSSOP and 8-pad TDFN packages; price in 1,000 piece quantities for the CAT1640/41 is $1.07 and for the CAT1320/21 is $0.99. Both devices are available in environment friendly “green” packages that are halogen and lead free with full RoHS compliance. Samples and production quantities are available now.

About Catalyst Semiconductor, Inc.
Founded in 1985, Catalyst Semiconductor, Inc. is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. The Company is a leading supplier of high performance analog/mixed-signal solutions and nonvolatile memory products used in automotive, aircraft, telecommunications, computation, industrial and consumer markets. The Company designs and markets a broad range of analog/mixed-signal products such as White LED Drivers, DC-DC Converters, GPI/O Expanders, Digitally Programmable Potentiometers (DPP™), Microcontroller Supervisory circuits and other analog/mixed-signal products. Programmable products include Serial and Parallel EEPROMs with I²C, SPI and Microwire interfaces, as well as NVRAM and low density Flash Memories. Typical applications include LCD displays, digital cameras, cell phones, automotive instrumentation, modems, wireless LANs, network cards, DIMM modules, digital satellite box receivers, set-top boxes and Internet routers. Catalyst’s Quality Management System is ISO 9001:2000 certified. For additional information about Catalyst Semiconductor, visit our website at: www.catalyst-semiconductor.com.

Forward Looking Statements
Except for those statements that report the Company’s historical results, the statements being made are forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements is contained under the heading “Certain Factors That May Affect the Company’s Future Results of Operations” listed from time-to-time in Catalyst’s SEC reports including, but not limited to, the report on the Form 10-K for the year ended April 30, 2004 and subsequent filings of Forms 10-Q.

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Editor Notes:

1. Trademark notices: DPP is a trademark of Catalyst Semiconductor, Inc. I²C is a registered trademark of Philips Corporation. SPI is a trademark of Motorola, Inc. Microwire is a trademark of National Semiconductor Corporation.
2. 2. The “2” in I2C is superscriptt.
3. Electronic images are available at: www.catalyst-semiconductor.com/editor.