Chip News Roundup - Samsung’s New Memory
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Nobody has a perfect memory, but apparently Samsung keeps trying to get closer. Its latest development is called phase-change random access memory, or PRAM. Though patents for the idea date all the way back to 1968, finding the right balance of chemical materials has been tricky. PRAM works by taking advantage of the properties of chalcogenide ceramic material. This material can exist in two physical states, amorphous and crystalline. It can be made to switch between the two states by varying the pulse of an electric current sent through it.
What does this mean in plain English? How about flash-style memory that’s as fast as RAM, in part because it doesn’t have to erase before recording something new? Not only that, but PRAM is expected to last ten times longer than current flash memory, and be less expensive to boot. Samsung has already demonstrated a 64 MB version of the memory, and expects it to reach the marketplace sometime in 2008.
The reduced expense of PRAM comes from two factors. First, it is essentially an inexpensive material – we’re talking ceramics here, basically a fancy form of clay made with traces of certain elements. Germanium is the one most commonly used for PRAM. While at $600 per kilogram, it’s a lot more expensive than copper (less than $8 per kilogram), it’s much cheaper than gold ($19,000 per kilogram).
The second reason PRAM is less expensive than other forms of flash memory (specifically NOR flash memory) is that it requires 20 percent fewer steps to produce. PRAM is also physically smaller than NOR – about half the size, in fact.
Samsung believes PRAM has great potential as a replacement for standard flash memory in multi-function handsets and other mobile applications. There is also potential for use on the desktop. Imagine, for example, a hybrid drive that uses flash memory to store parts or all of an operating system to boost performance. PRAM seems as if it should be a natural for such a drive.
One interesting point is that Samsung is getting behind PRAM as a replacement for NOR flash, when in theory it should work just as well to replace any kind of flash memory, particularly the more popular NAND. Well, there’s a reason for that. Samsung holds less than seven percent of the worldwide NOR flash market. The market leader in NOR flash holds nearly a third of the market. NAND flash, on the other hand, is Samsung’s bread and butter; it’s also the much more common variety. Samsung holds more than 45 percent of this market. Samsung is also Apple’s leading supplier of flash on the iPod. So it has potentially a lot to gain, and a lot to lose, from this new technology.
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