Sales and design center dedicated to servicing mainland China

SHANGHAI, China, Dec. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Atmel(R) Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML) a leader in microcontroller based solutions announced today the grand opening of its new location in Shanghai, China. As a part of extending Atmel's commitment to the Chinese market over the last 15 years, this marks an important milestone in extending Atmel's reach throughout mainland China. The offices will be located in the expansive new Shanghai Branch facility, located at 18F, Block B, Hi-tech Building, No. 900 Yishan Road, Shanghai PRC. 200233. They will provide design and extended sales and engineering support for Atmel's dynamic growth in the Asian market. In 2007, 50% of Atmel's worldwide revenue was from the Asian market. Recently, the company has signed distribution and representation agreements with a number of distributors, and intensive training courses on the company's technology and products have been provided to business partners and users.

"Our grand office opening is a major strategic initiative as a part of migrating our business model to that of a wholly owned Chinese enterprise setting the foundations for future branch offices and design centers throughout China. By establishing a solid network of design, product and customer support centers we wish to demonstrate our commitment to bringing the advantages of Atmel's solutions and its superior technology to the Chinese market," commented Dr. TC Wu, Atmel's CTO. "Our new design facility will allow us to immediately engage with our customers, present and potential, at a far more in-depth, greater level and give them the support they need to bring their products to market faster, more efficiently and more cost effectively than ever before."

Mr. Yang Chiah Yee, Atmel's Vice President APAC Sales, said, "In this new facility, we will be able to offer expanded sales and support to reinforce our on-going effort to provide the best in customer service. In addition, the new facility will allow us to provide more effective support and demonstrations of our microcontroller based product solutions." Mr. Yee continued, "As a world leader of microcontroller based solutions, Atmel continues to expand and improve our capabilities and services into markets throughout China. These changes will not only increase resources at a local level, but also provide more effective product exposure to our customers, as well as providing design solutions to our customers in this exciting and rapidly changing market."

About Atmel

Atmel Corporation is a global leader in the design and manufacture of microcontrollers, and complementary products such as capacitive touch sensing ICs, ASICs, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency components. Leveraging one of the industry's broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is able to provide the electronics industry with complete microcontroller based system solutions focused on consumer, industrial, automotive, security, communications and computing markets. By providing tools and support, Atmel enables those customers to lead the markets they serve with electronic products that are smaller, smarter, more cost-effective and versatile than ever before.

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Information:

Atmel's product information can be retrieved at http://www.atmel.com

Atmel's touchscreen product information may be retrieved at, http://www.atmel.com/touchscreen

      Press Contacts:
      Derek Chan, APAC Sales Management
      Tel: (852) 2721 9778, Email: derek.chan@atmel.com

      Karrie Lee/Claire Walker, Tech Works Asia Ltd. (PR agency)
      Tel: (852) 2525 3980/ (86-21) 5111 9192/ (86) 132 6816 5316
      Email: karrie@techworksasia.com/claire@techworksasia.com

Web site: http://www.atmel.com/