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Samsung Agrees $900 million
Settlement with Rambus
Editor:- January 19, 2010 - Rambus and Samsung today
announced
that they have reached agreement settling all claims between them and licensing
Rambus' patent portfolio covering all Samsung semiconductor products including a
perpetual fully paid-up license to certain current
DRAM products.
As
part of the overall agreement, Samsung will invest $200 million in Rambus stock.
Other consideration to Rambus includes an initial payment of $200 million and a
quarterly payment of about $25 million for the next 5 years. In addition the
companies have signed a memorandum of understanding relating to a new
generation of memory technologies and interfaces.
DDR PHY Cartoon from Denali
Editor:- November 17,
2009 - Denali Software
today published a simple cartoon style guide which introduces the complexities
involved in
designing
DDR PHY.
What's a DDR PHY? - To quote one of the captions - "I
sit between the memory controller and I/O pads and make your SoC shine!"
Even
if you're not a chip level
storage designer - appreciation of these design issues are helpful to an
understanding of product architectures, strengths, weaknesses and adaptibility.
3D Memory Market Reality Check
Editor:- September 13,
2009 - How is the 3D memory chip market stacking up? - An article in Semiconductor
International reviews the market's progress.
Author Philip
Garrou says - "3D memory surely will happen, just not that quickly"
- and reminds readers that a few years ago
analysts were
predicting it would be an established market by 2010. ...read
the article
Innovative Silicon to Discuss Future of DRAM
Editor:-
September 3, 2009 -
Innovative Silicon today
announced its
co-founder and chief scientist, Dr. Serguei Okhonin, is participating in
a tutorial at next week's 2009 ESSDERC
conference (in Athens, Greece) titled "Disruptive
Technologies for More Moore."
Dr. Okhonin has long recognized
that DRAM, which was first
released by Intel in 1970, is running out of steam. The basic DRAM memory cell,
consisting of a transistor and complex capacitor element, is becoming
increasingly difficult to scale to smaller process geometries. While the DRAM
industry has achieved miraculous results over the years by packing more and more
memory bits onto ever smaller silicon die and selling it for cents, this is no
longer feasible. Dr. Okhonin will cover the next frontier of memory
technologies: floating body memories.
Dr. Okhonin will talk about
the memory advancements that must be adopted to enable semiconductor
technologies to effectively scale to sub-45nm process geometries.
Silicon Power Launches Cool DDR3 DRAM
Editor:-
August 3, 2009 - Silicon
Power launched new server class DDR3
DRAM modules.
They
have built-in thermal sensors and are made specifically for servers and
workstations.
Available in 1333/1066 speeds, they are compatible with
Intel Nehalem-based Xeon 5500 platform in tri-channel operation.
Unbufferred
ECC DIMM are available in 6GB(2GB*3) / 3GB(1GB*3) / 4GB(2GB*2) / 2GB(1GB*2) /
2GB / 1GB capacities.
AGIGA Tech Samples High Density Non Volatile RAM Chips
Editor:-
May 26, 2009 - AGIGA
Tech started
sampling its new AGIGARAM
non-volatile system ( technology which delivers densities between 4 megabytes
(32 megabits) and 2 gigabytes (16 gigabits) and peak transfer rates equivalent
to DRAMs.
"Today's memory technologies all have a problem. DRAM is
volatile, flash is slow, SRAM with batteries is unreliable, and alternative
technologies are too costly to use in large densities," said Jim Handy,
Director of Objective
Analysis. "Products like AgigA Tech's that combine the best attributes
of DRAM and
NAND are likely to meet
with broad acceptance."
Rambus Unveils Technologies for Next Generation Fast RAMs
Editor:-
May 26, 2009 - Rambus
today unveiled a set of innovations that can advance computing
main memory beyond current
DDR3 data rate limits to
3,200Mbps.
Through this collection of licensable innovations, designers can
achieve higher memory data rates, higher effective throughput, better power
efficiency and the increased capacity necessary for future computing
applications.
storage chips
Sonics Solves Complex On-chip Memory Connectivity Problems
MILPITAS,
Calif., - May 5, 2009 - Sonics, Inc. has announced the Sonics Network
for AMBA Protocol or SNAP.
The product is a cost-effective,
turn-key solution designed to simplify the on-chip bus design for complex
embedded SoCs by turning multilayer bus designs into an IP block. SNAP's
easy-to-use development environment allows developers to quickly and intuitively
capture their design with little or no training.
As the number of IP cores in embedded SoC designs continues to grow,
current bus structures are becoming complex and time consuming to design. In
addition, memory access problems can arise because there are now multiple
processors competing for memory resources. SNAP addresses both of these problems
by first turning the complex interconnection of multiple cores into a customized
IP block, thus reducing the chip design effort. And 2nd, SNAP improves the
overall data flow in the systems, thereby improving bus performance and
eliminating memory bottlenecks.
...Sonics profile
Editor's
comments:- this is the kind of technology needed inside very high speed
next generation SFF SSDs.
Dataram Acquires Micro Memory Bank
Editor:- April
22, 2009 - Dataram
announced it has
acquired
Micro Memory
Bank.
MMB maintains a particular niche in legacy memory
products by being one of the few companies in the industry that carries and
stocks virtually every memory upgrade ever made.
Dataram's President
and CEO John Freeman said "David Sheerr (who founded MMB in 1994) is the
3rd executive to join Dataram in the past 12 months who has had previous
experience as the president of a company. David's entrepreneurial skills and
business success in our industry are valuable additions to our executive team."
Samsung Ships Highest Density DDR3
Seoul, Korea -
March 19, 2009 - Samsung
Electronics
announced
today that it has just made the initial shipment of the world's 1st and smallest
high-density memory modules based on 2Gb, 50nm-class
DDR3.
Samsung
is shipping 18 configurations of its new DDR3-based modules, which are
designed for servers. They include a 16GB RIMM and an 8GB RDIMM.
Editor's
comments:- although Samsung's press release talks about how much
RAM you can get in a server
(192GB for a 2-socket CPU server system) the new products will also advance
the density and lower the cost of high end multi-terabyte
RAM SSDs.
Court Rules Against Rambus - Re Ban on Hynix DRAM Sales in USA
SEOUL,
Korea - February 24, 2009 - yesterday the US District Court for the Northern
District of California denied Rambus's request for an injunction barring
Hynix from selling its DRAM products in the United States.
The
order also finalizes a prior ruling awarding damages to Rambus and imposes
royalties of 1% on SDR SDRAM and 4.25% on DDR SDRAM and later generations of
DRAMs sold in the US before the final judgment. Hynix and Rambus were ordered to
negotiate over royalty rates for sales after the date of final judgment. Hynix
expects that a final judgment reflecting this order will be entered soon.
Hynix is gratified that the court rejected Rambus's request for an
injunction, but is disappointed by the district court's damages ruling and will
file an appeal when the final judgment is entered. Hynix believes that Rambus's
patents, as has been recently confirmed by certain rulings of the US Patent &
Trademark Office, are invalid. In addition, Hynix maintains that Rambus's
conduct in destroying evidence relevant to the litigation between Hynix and
Rambus, and Rambus and the rest of the
DRAM industry, bars Rambus
from enforcing its patents.
The United States District Courts for
Delaware and Virginia have already ruled that Rambus is guilty of destroying
evidence; the decision of the California court conflicts with these other court
decisions. While Hynix's appeal is pending Hynix is not required to pay the
judgment; if, as it expects, Hynix prevails on the appeal, the judgment will be
reversed. The appeal will take 1 to 2 years under the normal U.S legal
procedure. Hynix's US sales of DRAMs will continue uninterrupted. While the
appeal is pending Hynix anticipates that the direct damage under the district
court's ruling will not be substantial and will be greatly dependent on the
results of the appeal.
...Hynix profile,
...Rambus profile
New Article Looks at Recession in the Memory Market
Editor:-
February 9, 2009 - Lane Mason, Memory Market Analyst at Denali -
has published a new article - "Memory Market's Recession - Actions and
Realities."
This give a good explanation of why the woes in
the memory market are so bad. ...read
the article, storage
analysts
Cypress Announces Change in Memory Division
SAN
JOSE, Calif. - February 5, 2008 - Cypress Semiconductor Corp. today
announced that Ahmad Chatilla, EVP of the Memory and Imaging Division
will be leaving the company this month to pursue an opportunity as the CEO of a
semiconductor wafer supplier.
He will be replaced by 21-year
Cypress veteran, Dana Nazarian, who is currently the VP of the synchronous SRAM
business unit of MID.
"Ahmad has been a valuable member of the Cypress executive team.
Working with Dana and the rest of the management team in MID, he has created an
extremely profitable and cash-flow-generating enterprise-even in the current
economic environment," commented T.J. Rodgers, CEO of Cypress. "We are
sorry to see Ahmad leave after 15 years with Cypress, but we take pride in what
he has been able to accomplish and we wish him the best in his new career as CEO
of MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc."
Dana Nazarian joined Cypress in 1988 as a new college graduate from
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a BSEE and rose steadily throughout the
company in a variety of technical and business roles.
...Cypress
Semiconductor profile, storage
people, storage chips
Qimonda Bust
Munich,
Germany - January 23, 2009 - Qimonda AG has petitioned for the
opening of insolvency proceedings due to illiquidity.
To comply
with German law the company has announced the appointment of insolvency
administrators.
...Qimonda profile
Editor's
comments:- Qimonda's revenue in 2008 was 1/2 the level it had been 2 years
earlier, and the outcome (in today's press release) was predicted in an
article I wrote in 2006 - the
names change but the problems remain the same.
Objective Analysis
has published an article about the lead up to Qimonda's insolvency and
explores the possible
fallout
for Qimonda's stakeholders. |
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3rd
Party RAM, Your Rights on Server Warranties - article by Keystone Memory
Users
know that
memory and
hard disk drives aren't
made by most of the companies from whom they buy their servers, notebooks and
desktops. But they are often intimidated from competitively buying 3rd party
upgrades by sales tactics aimed at locking them in to a single source.
Such
tactics often hint that maintenance contracts and warranties will be void or
negatively impacted by the presence of 3rd party upgrade products. That kind of
anti competitive pressure is illegal in many countries. This article provides an
overview of the legal protection that users may have under a US law called
Magnuson and Moss. ...read
the article | |
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Megabyte
found that RAM gave him the
fastest access to what he was seeking. | |
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| the Solid State
Disks Buyers Guide |
| The
SSD Buyers Guide
lists all SSD products commercially available in the market by form factor,
interface type and memory technology. It also includes a summary of key
milestones in the SSD market in the past year. | |
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| There
are
hundreds
of articles about SSDs on StorageSearch.com |
Here, below, are some
examples.
- RAM Cache
Ratios in flash SSDs - it's important to know the underlying RAM cache
architecture - even if you're happy with the R/W and IOPS performance.
- 2010 - 1st Fizz
in the SSD Bubble? - even the dogs in the street know this is going to be a
multibillion dollar market. Greed will play as big a part as technology in
shaping the
SSD year ahead.
- the pros and cons of
using SSD ASAPs - auto tuning SSD appliances are a new category of SSD
which entered the market in the 2nd half of 2009 to accelerate servers without
needing human tune-ups. How can you tell if they are right for you? And how
well do they work?
- the Problem
with Write IOPS - in flash SSDs - long established as a useful performance
modeling metric - this article explains why some specs are exaggerated when
applied to flash SSDs - or predict the wrong results for many common
applications.
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