Samsung Starts Production of Phase-Change Random Access Memory

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced at the sixth annual Samsung Mobile Solutions Forum held at the Westin Taipei Hotel that is has begun producing 512-Megabit (Mb) PRAM memory.

A new non-volatile memory technology that features high-performance and low power consumption, PRAM (phase change random access memory) is expected to usher in the next generation of non-volatile memory technology for mobile devices.

High-density and high-performance are the key technology requirements for smartphones, however these attributes can increase power consumption significantly. Because PRAM’s greatly simplified data access logic requires less support from DRAM, its power usage is very efficient. By using PRAM, the battery life of a handset can be extended over 20 percent.

“We believe PRAM will make a highly significant contribution to the efficiency of mobile phone designs, particularly for multimedia handsets and smartphones,” said Sei-Jin Kim, vice president, mobile memory planning and enabling group, Memory Division, Samsung Electronics. “We expect it to become one of our core memory products in the future.”

The 512Mb PRAM can erase 64 Kilowords (KWs) in 80 milliseconds (ms), which is over 10 times faster than NOR flash memory. In data segments of 5 Megabytes (MBs), PRAM can erase and rewrite data approximately seven times faster than NOR flash.

More scalable than other memory architectures now under research, PRAM combines the speed of RAM for processing functions with the non-volatile characteristics of flash memory for storage.

Samsung’s first PRAM is produced using 60-nanometer class technology, the same process technology used in NOR flash production today. Finer technology nodes will be applied in future generations of PRAM to expedite further commercial adoption.