The idea for FRAM has been around for years. But just recently FRAM with sufficiant density has been announced. Btw. it seems that Samsungs FRAM is not in production, yet. FRAM uses a different technology. FRAM stores data by moving atoms in a crystal grid. OUM memory stores data by altering the resistance of an alloy through phase changing. Quite a difference after all...
- They dont use RW "Film". Their IC will just contain small amounts of a similar ternary alloy. (Ge2Sb2Te5)
- Writing to the memory cell works by heating it with an electrical current !! Temperatures in excess of 600 degress celcius are required for a phase change. It seems that this is the main problem with this kind of memory.
- Reading is done by measuring the resistance. No refreshing or anything similar required.
- They dont have a working sample of a full memory chip yet. As of now it seems to be VAPORWARE
In case you want to know more than written in the short HTML marketing piece check this out: http://www.ovonic.com/technology.pdf
However there are other companies with very interesting (and available) products in the nvRam sector, which are trying to come by the disadvanteage of flashram:
RAMTRON: Using perovskite crystals to store data. (FRAM) Advantage over flashram: Faster , less power consumption, higher data retention.
Quite interesting: www.ramtron.com
SIMTEK: They have srams that automatically store the containing data to an on-chip Flashram when the power drops. And vice versa. Seems a litte brute-force to me, but seems to serve its purpose well.
www.simtek.com
ZMD: Has almost the same product as SIMTEK. They just do less bragging about it:
Don't people realise that MP3 was originally intended for compressing voice for cellular phone communication? What a crap. MP3 was never designed to compress voice. Or do you really think voice requires 16bit/44.1kHz stereo ? The original intent was to allow high quality music transmission via ISDN. (64 or 128kbit) However later they added some low bandwidth capabilites. But nevertheless there are still dedicated voice compression algorithms which are used in cell phones.
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The idea for FRAM has been around for years. But just recently FRAM with sufficiant density has been announced. Btw. it seems that Samsungs FRAM is not in production, yet. FRAM uses a different technology. FRAM stores data by moving atoms in a crystal grid. OUM memory stores data by altering the resistance of an alloy through phase changing. Quite a difference after all...
Some clarification:
- They dont use RW "Film". Their IC will just contain small amounts of a similar ternary alloy. (Ge2Sb2Te5)
- Writing to the memory cell works by heating it with an electrical current !! Temperatures in excess of 600 degress celcius are required for a phase change. It seems that this is the main problem with this kind of memory.
- Reading is done by measuring the resistance. No refreshing or anything similar required.
- They dont have a working sample of a full memory chip yet. As of now it seems to be VAPORWARE
In case you want to know more than written in the short HTML marketing piece check this out:
http://www.ovonic.com/technology.pdf
However there are other companies with very interesting (and available) products in the nvRam
sector, which are trying to come by the disadvanteage of flashram:
RAMTRON: Using perovskite crystals to store data. (FRAM) Advantage over flashram: Faster , less power consumption, higher data retention.
Quite interesting: www.ramtron.com
SIMTEK: They have srams that automatically store the containing data to an on-chip Flashram when the power drops. And vice versa.
Seems a litte brute-force to me, but seems to serve its purpose well.
www.simtek.com
ZMD: Has almost the same product as SIMTEK. They just do less bragging about it:
www.zmda.com
Don't people realise that MP3 was originally intended for compressing voice for cellular phone communication?
What a crap. MP3 was never designed to compress voice. Or do you really think voice requires 16bit/44.1kHz stereo ?
The original intent was to allow high quality music transmission via ISDN. (64 or 128kbit) However later they added some low bandwidth capabilites.
But nevertheless there are still dedicated voice compression algorithms which are used in cell phones.