Are You Ready for UtRAM?
Desktops and notebooks are all very well, but some of today’s most cutting-edge silicon is going into mobile phones — including, says Samsung Electronics, a new type of memory that combines the data-transmission speed of SRAM with the low-power capability of DRAM.
The company’s Uni-transistor Random Access Memory (UtRAM), now available in engineering samples with mass production expected to begin in the second quarter of the year, provides a synchronous burst interface for sequential write and read functions and runs at speeds of up to 80MHz, compared to mainstream SRAM devices’ 54MHz. Its low-power cell structure matches that of DRAM running at 1.8V.
Samsung will ship UtRAM, like its other memory products, in Multi-Chip Package (MCP) solutions that offer manufacturers as many as six devices — including DRAM, SRAM, and NAND Flash — in a single package optimized to meet the high-density, small-footprint, low-power, and low-pin-count requirements of mobile phone, PDA, and other designs.