IBM Claims World's Smallest SRAM Memory Cell

nokiator writes "IBM issued a press release today claiming that it has built an SRAM memory cell that is ten times smaller than those currently available. My interpretation of the PRese in this release is that IBM will be able to build 256Mb or 512Mb SRAM chips or integrate 32MB or more SRAM into processor dies for cache applications in the future. Of course, showing some SRAM cell prototypes is a long ways from being able to manufacture this technology in a cost effective way. There is no information in this PR about the speed or power consumption of SRAM blocks that can be built with this new cell technology. This is not likely to be a potential DRAM replacement for mainstream applications as DRAM already offers more than ten times density compared to SRAM at much better cost."

Comments

Cost effective? That depends...

[cavac]

Of course, showing some SRAM cell prototypes is a long ways from being able to manufacture this technology in a cost effective way.

Well, were still talking about IBM here? Do you really think that a few hundred dollars more would even get noticed at clients that buy a server in the 100K range?

The main advantage of buying high-end gear from IBM, Cisco and the like isn't that you get cheap hardware ('cause you simply don't). You buy the gear from that company because you get 10 years in-house service including remote failure detection if you pay for it. That means, THEY call YOU before you even notice one of your tripple-redunant drives has problems. At this point in time, the technician is probably already on the way up to your office.

Sure, it's very expensive. But you save quite a lot by not having any significant downtime...

Seen in that context, 500 bucks more for RAM is IMHO just irrelevant to even think of...