EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn.--November 20, 2003--NVE Corporation (NasdaqSC: NVEC) announced today that it has been awarded a contract by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to develop a new type of magneto-thermal Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM). The contract is for approximately $500,000 over two years and has a goal of showing the design feasibility of a one-gigabit (one billion bits of information) chip.

The contract announced today is in addition to a $750,000 magneto-thermal MRAM contract announced August 4, 2003 from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) administered by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command.

MRAM uses spintronics-electrons' spin rather than their charge-to store data, and is fabricated using nanotechnology. MRAM has the potential of combining the speed of semiconductor memory with the nonvolatility of magnetic disk drives, and could replace conventional memories. Because the data in MRAM are encoded in electron spins, the data remain even when power is removed and can survive extremes of radiation and other abuse.

Magneto-thermal MRAM would use a combination of magnetic fields and ultra-fast heating from electrical current pulses to increase density and reduce the energy required to write data. The goal of the new DTRA contract is to design magneto-thermal properties into the fixed-spin or "pinned" layer of a memory cell, whereas the DARPA contract is to impart magneto-thermal properties to the "free" layer. There are advantages to each approach, and both have the potential to allow MRAM to be fabricated at bit densities comparable to Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM). DRAM is the most common and largest-capacity type of semiconductor memory.

"Magneto-thermal MRAM promises to reduce both cell size and write current, both of which are key to allowing MRAM to supplant DRAM," commented NVE President and Chief Executive Officer Daniel A. Baker, Ph.D.

NVE has a number of U. S. and foreign patents on MRAM, including U.S. Patent number 6,535,416 for magneto-thermal MRAM. The area of research of the new contract is also covered by several U. S. Patent applications including number 20030007398.

The company has licensed its MRAM intellectual property to several companies, including Motorola, Inc., Cypress Semiconductor Corporation, Honeywell International, and Union Semiconductor Technology Corporation.

NVE's licensees are leading the race to commercialize MRAM. Motorola recently announced it has delivered samples of the world's first four-megabit MRAM chips, and Cypress reported achieving economic yields and demonstrated MRAM prototypes. NVE has an agreement for Motorola to pay NVE royalties, and a contract for Cypress to manufacture MRAMs for NVE.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency safeguards America's interests from weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high explosives) by controlling and reducing the threat and providing quality tools and services for the warfighter.

NVE is a leader in the practical commercialization of spintronics, which many experts believe represents the next generation of microelectronics. NVE licenses its MRAM intellectual property and sells spintronic products including sensors and couplers to revolutionize data sensing and transmission.

Statements used in this press release that relate to future plans, events, financial results or performance are forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties including, among others, such factors as industry economic trends and risks relating to making commercially viable MRAMs, as well as the risk factors listed from time to time in the company's SEC filings.