Tomorrow's Memory Technologies - The Memory Guy Blog

A Very Revealing ULTRARAM Update

Contributor Ron Neale returns to The Memory Guy blog with a deeper analysis of the University of Lancaster’s ULTRARAM, which was first announced relatively recently, in early 2020. This post includes his revealing interchange with the university’s Professor Manus Hayne, a key member of the ULTRARAM program, in which the professor indicates that GaAs ICs and Chiplets might be the way ahead for this technology.

Ron tells me that this is the first mention that he is aware of for Continue reading “A Very Revealing ULTRARAM Update”

The Future of Chalcogenide Switching

In this post in The Memory Guy blog, the first of a 2-part series, Ron Neale returns to explore the present state-of-play for chalcogenide-based switching and memory, with a plea for continuation of research. Along the way he invokes a three-point law for determining the probability of success for would be emerging memory entrepreneurs.

Does PCM still have a chance to become an important new memory technology? Intel’s abandonment of their Optane memory project, while sad, after so much effort and expense, does not and should not Continue reading “The Future of Chalcogenide Switching”

Emerging Memories After Optane

Now that Intel is exiting the Optane market what will happen to the market for new memory technologies? This is an interesting question that The Memory Guy has focused considerable attention over the past few years. In a nutshell, the market will continue to develop, but at a slower pace, with the bulk of revenue growth going to memories embedded into SoCs.

Even so, the market will grow significantly, with revenues reaching Continue reading “Emerging Memories After Optane”

ReRAMs find a Neuromorphic Role in Owl-Inspired Object Location

In his latest post on The Memory Guy, contributor Ron Neale reviews a novel use for ReRAM cells in which a neural processing system mimics the direction-finding mechanism of a barn owl’s ears. This is based on research performed by CEA-Leti in France, which was recently published in the journal Nature.

The potential for the use of the unique characteristics of ReRAMs, PCM and CeRAMs as brain-gates, neuromorphic devices, and in-memory computation has long been recognised.

In a paper recently published in Nature , inspired by the auditory system of the barn owl, a team from: CEA-Leti, Continue reading “ReRAMs find a Neuromorphic Role in Owl-Inspired Object Location”

CeRAM: Some Significant New Insights

In this post contributor Ron Neale takes a very deep look into a new paper published by Symetrix, Cerfe Labs and university researchers which provides fresh insights to the inner workings of CeRAM (Correlated electron RAM), an innovative class of non-volatile memory, where carbon doping of nickel oxide NiO leads to a new type of electronics based electron interaction. With the recently-disclosed material as background, he then adopts the position of Devil’s Advocate to explore alternative views of the memory switching mechanism and to test the proposition that CeRAM is not simply another kind of ReRAM.

A new and recently published paper in APL Materials [1] by a team from the University of Colorado, Symetrix Corporation, Cerfe Labs, The Katholieke University Belgium, Federal University of Rio de Janerio Brazil, and the University of Colorado and more recently [2] have provided us with some important Continue reading “CeRAM: Some Significant New Insights”

More New “Brief” White Papers Published This Week

As we have every week since January, this week Objective Analysis published another handful of our white papers, which we call “Objective Analysis Briefs”.

This week’s set covers a very diverse range, from the dissolution of a joint venture, through semiconductor cycles and business strategy, to Continue reading “More New “Brief” White Papers Published This Week”

New Briefs Cover Diverse Subjects

With this week’s release of five more new Briefs, Objective Analysis is now a little more than halfway through the current wave of releases. If you look through the Briefs listed on the Objective Analysis website you’ll find that they cover a diverse range of important semiconductor issues.

This week’s lineup covers the end of Continue reading “New Briefs Cover Diverse Subjects”

Samsung’s Aquabolt-XL Processor-In-Memory (Part 2)

Samsung has been strongly promoting its “Aquabolt-XL” Processor-In-Memory (PIM) devices for the past year. In this second post of a two-part series The Memory Guy will present other companies’ similar PIM devices, and will discuss the PIM approach’s outlook for commercial success.

Part 1 of this series explains the concept of Processing in Memory (PIM), details Samsung’s Aquabolt-XL design, and shares some performance data. It can be found HERE.

Samsung’s Not the First PIM Maker

This is not at all the first Continue reading “Samsung’s Aquabolt-XL Processor-In-Memory (Part 2)”

Samsung’s Aquabolt-XL Processor-In-Memory (Part 1)

For the past year, since ISSCC in February 2021, Samsung has been strongly promoting its “Aquabolt-XL” Processor-In-Memory (PIM) devices. In this two-part post The Memory Guy will explain the Aquabolt-XL architecture, its performance, other companies’ similar devices, and discuss the PIM approach’s outlook for commercial success.

Processing in memory is not a Continue reading “Samsung’s Aquabolt-XL Processor-In-Memory (Part 1)”

Introducing New Objective Analysis Briefs

Although Objective Analysis has published its “Brief” format white papers for some time, this line has never received the focus that it deserves. To remedy that, we are taking the most interesting and timeless of the Insights that we have published on membership website Smartkarma and providing them to our friends for a reasonable price.

The Brief is a very short report format used to make a succinct Continue reading “Introducing New Objective Analysis Briefs”