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Politics : RAMTRONIAN's Cache Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gutterball who wrote (5295)	4/27/1998 10:14:00 AM
From: Lou	Respond to of 14464

Rohm expanding their line-up of FRAM products./reposter Lou, Rohm appears to be expanding their line-up of FRAM products. According to the conference call last Feb., Rohm was producinga 16Kb serial FRAM only, with work on a shrunk 16Kb expected for 4Q98. Additional designs for 4Kb and 16Kb in works as well.We all have known this for some time now. Now however, Rohm is announcing new products of 64Kb and 256Kb for August 98. (Please note the lack of any date on the web site. I assume these products are new and the launch date is August 98 because there never was any mention of these products in previous PR or the conference call of last Feb.) They also have seemed to improve the performance of FRAM with some of their own modifications. [Here is the URL of the article (sans tables below) following. rohm.co.jp Doug **************************************************************** OHM Expands Lineup of Ferroelectric Memory with New 64 kB and 256 kB Products ROHM CO., LTD. (headquartered in Kyoto, Japan) recently developed two new products in its lineup of FRAM nonvolatile ferroelectric memory products. These products feature memory cells made of the ferroelectric PZT (lead zirconate titanate): BR63F64F (memory capacity: 64 kB) and BR63F256F (memory capacity: 256 kB). Samples of both these new products will be available in May (prices of 1,500 yen for the 64 kB product and 2,500 yen for the 256 kB product). Mass-production is scheduled to begin in August. (FRAM is a registered trademark of RAMTRON International Corporation in the U.S.) ROHM, recognizing the potential of ferroelectric memory early on, has actively pursued R&D in this field, including entering an alliance with RAMTRON to develop, manufacture and market FRAM products. ROHM has also been able to develop its own FFRAM products using ROHM's original technology. ROHM is the first Japanese manufacturer to initiate the integrated production of FRAM products, at its LSI Research Center, located inside their main office in Kyoto, Japan. April 1993 ROHM enters an alliance with RAMTRON concerning FRAM technology. February 1994 ROHM succeeds in prototyping and verifying the operations of its own ferroelectric memory element, MFMIS FET. February 1995 ROHM announces an MFMIS FET-based cell array at ISSCC (the IEEE's International Solid-State Circuits Conference). August 1996 ROHM establishes a system for mass-producing FRAM memory products. September 1996 ROHM begins shipping samples of 16 kB FRAM memory products. September 1996 ROHM develops a single-chip LSI product for airline carry-on luggage tags containing FRAM memory. Developed by RAMTRON, FRAM IC chips, are ferroelectric products that are said to be the ideal type of memory because of the many advantages they offer, 1) non-volatility (the ability to store data even after their power supply is turned off), 2) rapid re-writability, 3) low power consumption, and 4) high integration. The specific features of the new products recently developed by ROHM include the following: 1) Data is re-writable up to 1 trillion times 2) Data is storable for up to 10 years 3) Internal low-voltage protection circuit 4) Low power consumption (Operating = max. 25 mA, standby = max. 50 uA) 5) Rapid read access (Max. 250 ns) Although based on the fundamental structure developed by RAMTRON, the FRAM products manufactured and sold by ROHM also incorporate important features based on independently developed technologies. For example iridium electrodes, which increase rewritability by preventing ferroelectric degradation, as well as fabrication methods that allow for mass-production while assuring consistent quality. With last year's 16 kB product now supplemented with the new 64 kB and 256 kB products, ROHM's lineup of FRAM products gives users increased selection, and is expected to greatly widen the range of applications. ROHM will continue pursuing unmounted memory products, as well as applications for system LSI, with which embedded memory is particularly well-suited. ****************************************************************