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September 15th, 2005
Atom Chip to Exhibit Terabit Quantum Memory at CES– $2.50 Per
Gigabyte Chip Memory Reported
Atom Chip Corporation, which has reserved a booth to exhibit its
terabyte memory chips at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, indicates on its web site that it has
quantum based memory chips priced at $2.50 per Gigabyte. The price is far below the $45 a Gigabyte equivalent
monolithic chip price and the $80 plus one has to pay for one Gigabyte flash cards on the retail market.
Atom Chip’s technology is based on solid state optoelectronics
and does not have moving parts. The Quantum Optical Memory can be used as RAM and the basis for hard disk drive free PCs.
The specifications that the company lists for its Non-Volatile Quantum RAM Storage device include a standby current of less
than 0.5 uA, a read time of 60 nanoseconds and an update time of 120 nanoseconds. The shock specification is given at 2000
G, max.
The price set for the Terabyte chip is $6000.00. One terabyte is
equal to 1,000 gigabytes – more than enough memory for most people, for now – the Internet on a Chip anybody?
September 15th, 2005
Samsung Electronics has announced the development of a 256 Mbit
PSRAM chip based on a 90-nanometer process technology. With the announcement, the company reported that it would begin sampling
cellular phone manufacturers later this month and then go into mass production by the end of 2005.
The new JEDEC compliant PSRAM, called the 256 Mb UtRAM, has
an operational speed of 133 MHz. It is available in a stand-alone version or can be combined with different types of memory
chips such as flash in multi-chip packages (MCP). The high-growth 3G mobile phone market segment is expiated to be a major
market for the chip.
PSRAMs are generally defined as DRAM chips with on-chip DRAM controllers. That architecture simplifies
the design of cellular phones and lowers the power consumption consumed by memory when compared to SRAM chips.
September 12th, 2005
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. has announced a 16 Gbit NAND flash
memory chip. The chip was designed with a 50-nanometer semiconductor process technology using a 3D-transistor architecture,
which enabled the high-density memory storage capability. The memory cell size, which stores just one bit of data, was reported
as 0.00625 square microns per bit, a 25 percent reduction in the cell size of the company’s previous 8 Gbit NAND memory
Samsung developed in 2005 using a 60 nanometer technology. The 16 Gbit device has 16.4 billion transistors in total.
Samsung indicated that it plans to begin mass production of the
16Gb NAND flash in the second half of 2006. End markets for the chip potentially include replacements for hard disk drives
in PCs, and for music machine and cellular phone applications.
The company with the announcement reported that the compound annual
growth rate of NAND flash chips was 70 percent from 2001 through 2005. As well, Samsung said that NAND flash memory chip sales
would exceed NOR flash memory chip sales this year for the first time. Samsung expects that the global NAND flash chip market
will see revenues in the order of $10.1 billion this year.
September 7th, 2005
STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) has started the production of its
128-Mbit NAND Flash device – the NAND128W3A2BN6E on its latest 90 nanometer flash process. The company indicated
that its 256 Mbit and 512 Mbit NAND flash chips will also be moved from 120 nanometer manufacturing lines to 90 nanometer
lines. The new process will permit lower power and higher performance digital still cameras, PDAs, settop boxes, printers
and flash cards to be designed. The chips come complete with design support software, which can be used to increase
the lifetime data reliability of the chips.
August 31st, 2005
Micron Technology Shipping 4Gb and 8Gb NAND Flash Chips
Micron Technology, Inc. (NYSE:MU) has begun shipping 4 Gigabit and 8 Gigabit NAND flash memory
chips. The chips are packaged in 48 pin thin small outline package and operate off a 3.3 volt supply. According to Bob Leibowitz,
Micron's NAND product marketing manager, "Micron is committed to meeting customers' solid state NAND memory requirements by
offering competitive and quality solutions to enable next generation mobile applications. By leveraging our success and expertise
in DRAM manufacturing, Micron is prepared to produce and deliver the high-density devices customers demand for their mass
storage requirements."
Micron has traditionally derived the majority of its revenue from
DRAM chips, while only obtaining a small percentage from Flash chips. The new flash chips are expected to be used in flash
applications such as MP3, USB memory storage drives and general-purpose flash cards.
August 26th, 2005
As part of a flash chip manufacturing agreement with Hynix, M-Systems,
a fabless flash chip company, has agreed to purchase $100 million in manufacturing equipment to enable Hynix to produce processed
semiconductor wafers for M-Systems. According to Dov Moran, CEO of M-Systems, "These agreements are important to support our
continued growth and commitments to our customers. Hynix becoming an additional source for DiskOnChip further validates our
leadership within the EFD category."
M-Systems and Hynix are currently developing a DiskOnChip embedded
flash drive (EFD) for the high stakes mobile handset market.
The deal may give Hynix, which is one of the world’s leading
suppliers of DRAM memory, an increased market share position in the flash chip market.
JULY 26th, 2005
$10 Million in Funding Available for ASTAR’s RFID Technology Partners
– Integrates Antenna Onto Chip
Exploit Technologies, after an initial proposal review, has announced that it will invest
$10 million (Singapore Dollars) in companies with proposals to further enable A*STAR’s RFID chip technology. One of
A*STAR’s RFID technologies is an RFID chip that integrates an on-chip antenna. The technology offers both read and write
functions. The chip has an area less than 1 square millimeter, compared to other RFID tags that require a few square centimeters
to implement. That technology comes from IME, (Institute of Microelectronics based in Singapore).
The secret to the small size and low cost RFID tag chip is that IME researchers
used a process to fabricate the antenna on top of the RFID chip, as opposed to separate printing and assembly processes often
used to manufacture other types of non-integrated RFID antennas. Professor Dim-Lee Kwong, Executive Director of IME indicated
that the RFID antenna chip was produced in-house at IME’s facilities, “The results of our integrative research,
combining circuit design know-how and processing technologies, have contributed to our ability to offer novel solutions. It
also demonstrates our in-house capabilities to address wide-ranging challenges, from innovative circuit and antenna design
to post processing technologies.”
After the iniitial call for proposals for RFID technology, Exploit reported that a number
of companies came forward. Among them was BiG by Safe Pte Ltd, a consumer electronics retailer with plans to develop an RFID
system for use in its stores and warehouses. Others that have heard Exploit’s call included the National Library Board
and Smart ID Technology Pte Ltd. The National Library Board is studying a smart shelf system and Smart ID wants to develop
passive Ultra High Frequency (UHF) electronic seals.
Commenting on the response on the initial call for RFID proposals was Ms Emily Tan, Senior
Vice President of Exploit Technologies’ Science and Engineering Division and Incubation and Spin-off Management Division,
“The enthusiastic response from the local industry to our call for proposals clearly indicates the relevance of A*STAR’s
RFID technologies for their business needs. With the S$10m investment, we aim to create practical RFID solutions from which
local companies and consumers can benefit.”
Exploit Technologies itself also sees tamper-proof RFID tags for pharmaceutical applications
to deal with the growing medical problem of falsified drugs. The company points to a World Health Organization study that
indicates that about 10 percent of all pharmaceutical drugs are not pharmaceuticals at all – but apparently have been
replaced with other types of inexpensive tablets, such as aspirin or in some cases, substances of unknown nature.
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