Ahhhhhhhhhhhh...
Just like old times:
Life after flash
Could flash memory be coming to an end as shrinking geometries make the technology less reliable? Steve Rogerson looks at the alternatives
As geometry sizes shrink, flash memory is reaching a barrier and the race is on among developers to find the next technology that can take standalone and embedded storage forward. And the problem is with us now as chip companies take geometries below 65nm; flash has serious problems at 45nm and the feeling is that it has no long-term future.
Putting this into perspective, if flash will not go to 45nm, it still has at least five to ten years of life in higher geometries, and probably more, but given the time it would take to move a memory technology from the design board to being a commodity, companies are looking at alternatives, and there are some front runners.
One is ferroelectric RAM, or FRAM. This fits well with current semiconductor processes as it just involves adding a couple of mask steps. And its proponents claim that it would have no problem scaling down to 45nm and below, though that has yet to be put to the test. Ramtron, the main company behind the technology, has produced products at 130nm, but hasn’t dipped into the 65nm market yet, let alone 45nm.
“We don’t tend to start a new memory technology on the latest processors but on tried and tested and reliable technologies,” explained Duncan Bennett, Ramtron’s strategic marketing manager. “But we don’t see a problem taking it down to new processes.”
The company though is not rushing to try to reduce the geometries until it is sure there is a market for it and that it would be economical to produce, but Bennett said that there was no reason why it would have to follow the normal steps.
“We don’t have to come down to 90nm,” he said. “We can miss that and go straight to 65nm, but it would be at least five to ten years before we would be looking at 45nm. We could go straight to 45nm if it was a stable and cost effective process, but the processes are not cost effective yet and I couldn’t say when they will be.”
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cieonline.co.uk
Now... Where did I put that stash... er uh... I mean "cache"... <Hoo><Hoo><Haa>
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