Dang...
That didn't last long. <g>
"Ramtron Announces First Nonvolatile State Saver
Ferroelectric-Based Device Retains Logic States Without Power and Restores Outputs Automatically on Power up
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- (MARKET WIRE) -- May 30, 2007 -- Ramtron International Corporation (NASDAQ: RMTR), a leading developer and supplier of nonvolatile ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) and integrated semiconductor products, today launched the semiconductor industry's first nonvolatile state saver -- a novel device that saves the state of signals on demand and restores them to the correct state automatically upon power up. FRAM technology uniquely enables this capability due to its fast write time and virtually unlimited write endurance.
Ramtron's new family of low-power, nonvolatile state savers currently has two products: the FM1105, which operates at 5-volts, and the FM1106, which operates at 3-volts. Both devices are available in a small SOT23 package. Additional configurations are planned..."
marketwire.com
A pretty hefty, yet competitive, unit price for this kind of part and the label they chose for the product line is a whole lot better than the "counter" terminology in the patents. This could turn out to be a sweet little cash cow... or perhaps we should say "calf." Imagine just one of these in only half the com switches, base stations, routers, cable modems [Lord! I would kill for one in my cable modem and router], game boxes, PCs, cars, furnaces, TVs... anything with an analogue or A/D circuit. Hell they might have to cut the price in half just to save room in the bank account!! <Hoo><Haa><Haa>
The only downside I can see to this is the possible time its going to take to work its way through the EE food chain. That plus the time required for RMTR to develop new flavors of the stuff. For awhile the initial customers are going to have a major differentiator for the product lines in which they use it.
Speaking of which... it shouldn't be too long before someone comes in and asks for these things on a FRAM, Processor Companion and/or MCU product. If I understand what this thing does, it could turn out to have practically infinite uses and has the potential to be ubiquitous in its own right.
But more importantly its another very big step down the road for embedded FRAM applications and demonstrates a huge world of flexibility, creativity, and security for which system designers can aim once they have FRAM cells sitting on top of their processor units.
Lord A'Mighty... If somebody would just figure out a way to make a FeFET with a 10 year endurance we and the BoD could be gazillionaires x 3!!!! <Hoo><Hoo><Haa>
Oh well... there's always next year. <vbg>
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