BusinessWire
July 25, 2005 05:00 AM US Pacific Timezone

Atmel Corporation Joins Power-One and C&D Technologies as the Newest Member of the Z-One Digital Power Alliance

CAMARILLO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 25, 2005--

The addition of Atmel Corporation dramatically increases the semiconductor development, manufacturing, and supply chain capabilities of the Z-Alliance organization. This latest development combines the strengths of all three companies to define and provide the next generation of digital power conversion and management products based on Z-One(TM) Digital Power Architecture with focus on the communications and data infrastructure markets.

Atmel Corporation will apply its semiconductor foundry expertise by initially working with Power-One in developing the next generation, single-chip Z-One Digital Power Manager module. Later, Atmel, Power-One and C&D Technologies, will define and develop other digital power management devices. The first jointly-developed products are expected before the end of 2005.

Steve Goldman, Power-One's Chairman and CEO, commented, "We are very excited to join forces with Atmel Corporation -- an industry leader in the design and manufacture of advanced microcontrollers, non-volatile memory, and logic devices. Their proven expertise in digital design and semiconductor packaging combined with Power-One and C&D's experience in digital power conversion and power management will bring to the market truly revolutionary products. The Z-Alliance has had products in the market now for over six months, while our competitors are talking about having product available sometime this year. Meanwhile, we've been working on our 2nd generation products and believe we will have gained considerable market share by year end."

"Our decision to join the Z-Alliance organization was motivated by the accelerating acceptance of Z-One(TM) digital power technology in the market," said Jeff Katz, Atmel Senior VP Marketing. "We believe Atmel's semiconductor design and manufacturing capabilities complement our partners' strengths in the traditional power supply market and allow further expansion of Z-One application coverage through reduction of system cost and time to market. We also feel this will complement Atmel's existing offerings in low voltage and low power products."

About Power-One, Inc.

Power-One is one of the largest manufacturers of power conversion products in the world. Products are sold to telecommunications and Internet service providers and equipment manufacturers. Power-One, with headquarters in Camarillo, CA, has global sales offices and manufacturing and R&D operations in China, Dominican Republic, Ireland, Slovakia, Switzerland, and the United States. For more information, please visit www.power-one.com.

About Atmel Corporation

Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry's broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is able to provide the electronics industry with complete system solutions. Focused on consumer, industrial, security, communications, computing and automotive markets, Atmel ICs can be found Everywhere You Are(R). The Atmel website can be found on www.atmel.com.

About C&D Technologies

C&D Technologies, Inc. is a technology company that produces and markets systems for the power conversion and storage of electrical power, including industrial batteries and electronics. This specialized focus has established the company as a leading and valued supplier of products in three major categories -- reserve power systems, electronic power supplier and material handling systems. Corporate headquarters are in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, USA. The company is traded on the NYSE under CHP.

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