April 2007

A research team led by Professor Kim Bong-soo of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has developed a new kind of magnetic RAM, which is a next-generation computer chip.

"We proved for the first time that cobalt silicon, which is not naturally magnetic, can be made strongly magnetic if it is produced in ultra-microscopic nanometer-size lines," said Professor Kim. By closely arranging the nano-lines, the researchers are able to make three-dimensional MRAM.

Intel Corp. has revealed a prototype PRAM (phase change RAM) wafer, long under development, at IDF Spring 2007 in Beijing, China, which began on April 16, 2007. At the keynote speech, Intel's CTO Justin Rattner announced, "the company will start mass-production of PRAM as early as the second half of 2007." He also said, "We consider replacing NOR flash memory with PRAM first, but that's not our goal. PRAM may possibly replace DRAM in the near future. We are paying a lot of attention to the technology."

Read more here (TechOn) 

Fujitsu today announced the availability of its 2 Mbit Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM or FeRAM) memory chips, which the company claims is the largest capacity FRAM in volume production in the world. The memory product have the same electrical characteristics and use the same TSOP-48 package as Fujitsu's 1 Mbit FRAM products, equating to double the capacity over previous chips.

Sampling price of the chips is set at 2,000 Yen ($16.91 USD).

Agilent Technologies today announced new hardware and software capabilities for its B1500A Semiconductor Device Analyzer and EasyEXPERT software test shell, which reduce the time required for the testing and characterization of advanced non-volatile memory (NVM) cells and other next-generation semiconductor devices.

The Agilent B1500A meets the industry’s need for an instrument-based solution that supports modern NVM technology requirements, including MRAM, PRAM, RRAM, NAND and NOR Flash, such as support for voltages greater than 20 V and precise control over the pulse level, and leading and trailing edges. The B1500A with EasyEXPERT and the HV-SPGU is designed to allow users to complete endurance testing of NVM cells up to 10 times faster than with previous solutions.

Intel's chief technology officer Justin Rattner is set to give the first public demonstration of the company's PRAM (phase-change RAM) technology at this week's Intel Developer Forum (IDF) conference.

PRAM is based on chalcogenide glass, which can be altered using the heat generated by an electric current. Heat changes the physical structure of the glass to either a crystalline or amorphous state. Each of these states has a distinct electrical resistance that is used to represent the ones and zeroes needed to represent stored data in binary terms.