ferroelectric
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The big memory cube gamble: IBM and Micron stack their chips
Manufacturers have been murmuring about 3D memory chips for years, but an escalation in recent radio chatter suggests the technology is on the cusp of becoming commercial. Intel unveiled a Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) at IDF, which promises seven times the energy efficiency of today's DDR3, and now IBM and Micron have shown their hand too. The pair just struck up a partnership to produce cubes using layers of DRAM connected by vertical conduits known as through-silicon vias (TSVs). These pillars allow a 90 percent reduction in a memory chip's physical footprint, a 70 percent cut in its appetite for energy, and -- best of all -- a radical increase in bandwidth: HMC prototypes have already scored 128Gb/s 128GB/s, which makes 6Gb/s SATA III look like a bottleneck. It certainly sounds like a game-changer, unless of course some rival technology like ferroelectric memory gets there first. Update: Doh, sorry for the wrong caps, which were shrunken by a factor of eight. For comparison, current high-level DRAM delivers around 12.8GB/s. [Thanks, Maximilian]
Ferroelectric transistor memory could run on 99 percent less power than flash
We've been keeping an optimistic eye on the progress of Ferroelectric Random Access Memory (FeRAM) for a few years now, not least because it offers the tantalizing promise of 1.6GB/s read and write speeds and crazy data densities. But researchers at Purdue University reckon we've been looking in the wrong place this whole time: the real action is with their development of FeTRAM, which adds an all-important 'T' for 'Transistor'. Made by combining silicon nanowires with a ferroelectric polymer, Purdue's material holds onto its 0 or 1 polarity even after being read, whereas readouts from capacitor-based FeRAM are destructive. Although still at the experimental stage, this new type of memory could boost speeds while also reducing power consumption by 99 percent. Quick, somebody file a patent. Oh, they already did.
Researchers set new record for ferroelectric data storage
Ferroelectric isn't just a ridiculously fun word to say, it might just also be the future of computing. While that possibility is still a ways off, researchers have been making considerable progress in recent years, and a team from Japan's Tohoku University has now set a new record for ferroelectric data storage. That was accomplished with the aid of a scanning nonlinear dielectric microscope, which allowed the researchers to hit a data density of 4 trillion bits per square inch. As you might expect, the exact process is a bit complicated -- involving a pulse generator that's used to alter the electrical state of tiny dots on the ferroelectric medium -- but the researchers say that the technology is a leading candidate to replace magnetic hard drives and flash memory, or "at least in applications for which extremely high data density and small physical volume is required." Unfortunately, they aren't going so far as to speculate when that might happen.
SSD power consumption reduced by 86 percent, speeds of 9.5GBps achieved by Japanese researchers
You know, the thing about the future is, it'll probably come from Japan. Only yesterday we saw mammoth 50TB magnetic tapes, and today we're hearing the home of Nikon has come up with a new writing method for NAND flash memory that dramatically reduces the already humble power requirements of SSDs. Using their hot new single-cell self-boost technique, University of Tokyo researchers have been able to lower operational voltages down to 1V and thereby facilitate parallel writing to over 100 NAND chips at a time, resulting in the bombastic 9.5GBps writing speed claim. The whole thing has only just been announced, so don't go raiding your local tech store just yet, but we can at least start preparing ourselves for this madness whenever it does show up. [Thanks, Mike]
New silicon film ferroelectric may pave the way for instant-on computers (or maybe not)
While the gang at Toshiba are still trying to bring FeRAM to the masses, a team of researchers at Cornell University have devised a new ferroelectric material composed of silicon and strontium titanate that they say can be used (someday!) to build "instant on" transistors. And you know what that means -- instant on computers for students, and instant on death rays for future robot armies. To coax the generally mild-mannered strontium titanate into acting "ferro-electrified" (not an actual scientific term), researchers grew it onto a silicon substrate using a process known as epitaxy. The material literally squeezed itself within the spaces of the silicon molecules, which gave it ferroelectric properties. As you may have guessed, this research was partially funded by the Office of Naval Research -- so the "death ray" remark may not be so off base, after all. We'll keep an eye out.[Via Daily Tech]
Toshiba makes progress on FeRAM, still no tangible product in sight
Phew. For a moment year or so there we reckoned that amazing FeRAM discovery had been pushed aside and forgotten entirely. Thankfully, Toshiba has picked up the ball and refined the original chainFeRAM architecture by creating a new architecture that prevents cell signal degradation -- which, as you may or may not know, is the usual tradeoff from chip scaling. In essence, this has allowed the company to design the world's highest bandwidth, highest density (128-megabit) non-volatile RAM. Unfortunately, this amazing device -- which should realize read / write speeds of 1.6 gigabytes a second and combine the fast operating characteristics of DRAM with flash memory's ability to retain data while powered off -- is still in prototype form, which probably means we're months (if not years) away from actually seeing a tangible end product hit store shelves.[Via AkihabaraNews]
Displaytech FLCOS microdisplays see action in iView pico-projector
Remember those fancy microdisplays we heard about back in November? You know, the one's based on Displaytech's Ferroelectric liquid-crystal-on-silicon (FLCOS) technology? Now that you're with us, we figured you should know that these very devices will be used in a pico-projector crafted by iView Limited. Apparently, said PJ will be demonstrated next week at CES, but beyond the fact that both firms seem extraordinarily happy to have found each other, little is known about the resulting device itself. Still, we're hoping to get a few useful details -- resolution, form factor, etc. -- in just a few days, but for now, you can tag the read link and catch all the gushing you can handle.[Via AboutProjectors]
Korean researcher hopes to build ferroelectric RAM
If you've fantasized about how wonderful your life could be if the merits of DRAM, SRAM and Flash memory could all be mixed harmoniously into one "dream semiconductor," listen up. You may not be up to speed on all the advancements in ferroelectric materials, but we're pretty sure even the technological newbie could appreciate a new discovery by Korean researcher Dr. Shin Young-han. Reportedly, this fellow has "succeeded in figuring out the operational mechanism of ferroelectrics," which could potentially lead to FeRAM -- a technology that could "store data ten times faster than Flash memory and keep it for longer than ten years." Kudos to you, Dr. Shin, now let's get this stuff on the production line, shall we?[Image courtesy of Ferra]
