This could certainly put some serious power into a PDA.
Infineon Technologies (NYSE: IFX), a German semiconductor company with U.S. headquarters in San Jose, today introduced a new dynamic random access memory (DRAM) product line for the handheld devices market. The new "Mobile-RAM" family, consisting of a low-power Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) mounted in a chip-size Ball-Grid-Array package (little more than a bead of solder between two circular pads), touts very low power requirements, a small form factor and low cost per bit to traditional EDO DRAM units, which are largely finding themselves replaced by the faster SDRAM technology.
Heinrich Florian, director of Product Marketing at Infineon's Memory Product Division, says power consumption of the Mobile-RAM can be reduced by up to 80% depending on the operating conditions and system design. Unlike standard SDRAMs, which operate at 3.3 volts, the new Mobile-RAM operates at just 2.5 volts for the memory array and 1.8 volts (or 2.5V) for the input/output (I/O) section. The form factor of the Mobile-RAM is also reduced by more than a factor of three by using a Chip-Scale-Package (CSP) that is only marginally larger than the dimensions of the silicon chip.
"Infineon's highly competitive die-sizes enable the company to offer the smallest CSP packaged 128M devices in the industry," says Florian. "This new 128-Mbit device is the first product on our Mobile-RAM roadmap which will soon be extended to the 256-Mbit generation."
The world market for Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), which Florian says is the largest of the target markets for the Mobile-RAM line, was around 10 million PDA units in 2000, and is projected by research firm Dataquest to grow approximately 46% per year to reach 34 million units in 2004.
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