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2nd Generation ultradense memory technology improves speed and power The developer of Z-RAM® high density memory intellectual property (IP), . (ISi), has announced the availability of its second generation ZRAM technology, Z-RAM Gen2, which delivers significant performance improvements with greatly reduced power consumption. Simultaneously, it has announced that Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. has contracted to purchase a license for Z-RAM Gen2, having already contracted to purchase a license to the previous generation technology in December of 2005. Z-RAM technologies achieve world-leading density and performance by using a single transistor as a memory bitcell. This is made possible by harnessing the Floating Body Effect found in circuits fabricated using SOI (silicon-on-insulator) wafers. Moreover, since Z-RAM takes advantage of a naturallyoccurring SOI effect, Z-RAM works on SOI logic processes without requiring exotic process changes to build capacitors or other devices. Z-RAM Gen2 stores significantly more charge in the memory bitcell. The additional charge provides an order-of-magnitude improvement in both cell margin (the difference between a "1" and a "0"), and in data retention time. This higher margin also provides much faster data read and write times, yet reduces power consumption significantly. As a result, Z-RAM Gen2 |
substantially broadens the range of applications able to take advantage of ZRAM's density: these include highperformance applications requiring greater than 1GHz operation (when pipelined); and low-power applications requiring longbattery life. Z-RAM was already the densest memory technology in the world; Z-RAM Gen2, however, is now more than twice as fast and cuts memory read power by 75% and memory write power by an impressive 90%. It also exhibits extreme flexibility, since the technology can be 'tuned' for a very wide range of speed/power operating points, from ultra-low power to very high performance. Z-RAM Gen2 also exhibits an ultra-high density greater than 5Mbits per mm2 at 65nm, and greater than 10Mbits per mm2 at 45nm. This is effectively double the density of an eDRAM and up to six times the density of an SRAM. Other salient features include random array access greater than 400MHz, and very low active power consumption of under 10µW/MHz. Z-RAM Gen2 technology is available today, and can be procured as either a Technology License, where ISi trains its customers to build their own Z-RAM memory macros; or as an Instance License, where ISi provides a memory instance in a specific process and designed for a specific application.
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