Tomorrow’s Memory Technologies

Symetrix: The Next Big Step for FeFETs

Ron Neale enjoyed an extensive e-mail correspondence with Professor Carlos Paz de Araujo of the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs, and founder of Symetrix, about Symetrix’ new approach to ferroelectric memory technology. In this post Ron provides an overview of that conversation that provides significant insight into why FRAMs hit their limit at 180nm, and why they suddenly have opportunities at the most advanced process lithographies.

Ferroelectric memory was one of the earliest and first of the non-volatile (NV) emerging memory technologies to make significant Continue reading “Symetrix: The Next Big Step for FeFETs”

Putting the Brakes on Added Memory Layers

For some time two sides of the computing community have been at odds. One side aims to add layers to the memory/storage hierarchy while other side is trying to halt this growth.

This has been embodied by recent attempts to stop using objective nomenclature for cache layers (L1, L2, L3) and moving to more subjective names that aim to limit any attempt to add another new layer.

This is a matter close to my heart, since Continue reading “Putting the Brakes on Added Memory Layers”

Micron Bows Out of 3D XPoint Business

In an investor conference call today Micron Technology announced that it would discontinue further development of the 3D XPoint memory that the company had developed in partnership with Intel, phasing out production and selling off the Lehi, Utah fab (pictured) that makes 3D XPoint.

Micron said that it has determined that the market for the product is too small to Continue reading “Micron Bows Out of 3D XPoint Business”

ZnTe Selectors to Solve NVM Fabrication Problems

Contributor Ron Neale joins us again to review a recently-published article in the journal Nature Scientific Reports. While the main focus of the paper is on using a nitrogen environment to generate stable memory selectors from ZnTe, it also provides some new inputs through which he finds further support of his theories of Forming and device behavior.

A recently-published Nature Scientific Reports article by a research team from Hanyang and Kunsan Universities in The Republic of Korea focuses on Continue reading “ZnTe Selectors to Solve NVM Fabrication Problems”

Microchip’s Answer to Emerging Memories

Microchip Technology is now shipping a memory chip that has been designed to provide the most popular features of emerging memory chips without using any non-standard semiconductor technologies. It’s as fast as an SRAM with the nonvolatility of an EEPROM.

Readers may recall that Tom Coughlin and I recently updated Continue reading “Microchip’s Answer to Emerging Memories”

CeRAM Moves Front and Center on the NV Memory Stage

In this post contributor Ron Neale shares a close look at the new memory announced today by Arm spin-off Cerfe Labs. He provides insight into the operation and composition of this technology which originated at Symetrix, a company that has previously developed FRAM technologies licensed to major semiconductor and capacitor manufacturers.

While many companies seek to offer a nonvolatile (NV) alternative to Flash, with varying degrees of success, something new called a correlated electron memory (CeRAM) has entered Continue reading “CeRAM Moves Front and Center on the NV Memory Stage”

IBM Put PCM at the Core of Hyperdimensional Computing (HDC)

Our PCM maven Ron Neale explored how PCM is being used to benefit Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) applications. Although AI is a new spin to The Memory Guy blog, there is a striking similarity between memory chips and certain AI applications, most particularly Neural Networks.

In this post Ron delves into a recent piece of IBM research published in Nature Electronics, that uses Hyperdimensional Computing algorithms to Continue reading “IBM Put PCM at the Core of Hyperdimensional Computing (HDC)”

Did 3D XPoint Costs Reach Break-Even?

During Intel’s latest earnings announcement the company provided information to indicate that 3D XPoint, which Intel sells under the name “Optane”, may have finally reached break-even: It may no longer be selling at a loss.

How would The Memory Guy know? Well, in fact, I don’t, but I can make an informed guess.

The chart below shows Continue reading “Did 3D XPoint Costs Reach Break-Even?”

FRAM Turns 68

Perhaps the oldest nonvolatile semiconductor memory type is the ferroelectric memory, which recently celebrated its 68^th birthday. FRAM predates flash memory, EEPROM, and even UV-erasable EPROM. It’s even older than mask ROM, which wasn’t invented until 1967!

As a matter of introduction to the technology, FRAM, or ferroelectric memory, is a read/write nonvolatile memory technology that performs significantly better than Continue reading “FRAM Turns 68”

Emerging Memory Market to Hit $36 Billion by 2030

The Memory Guy is pleased to announce the release of a new report co-authored by Objective Analysis and Coughlin Associates named: Emerging Memories Find Their Direction. In this report we show that emerging memories, MRAM, ReRAM, 3D XPoint, and other technologies are well on their way to reach $36 billion of combined revenues by 2030.

The report provides invaluable guidance to Continue reading “Emerging Memory Market to Hit $36 Billion by 2030”