Big Blue makes SRAM DRAM

IBM claims that it has worked out a way of curing hardware of memory bottlenecks by replacing SRAM with DRAM.

According to Associated Press reports, the design will triple the amount of memory stored on computer chips and double the performance of processors.

Big Blue said that the method involves merging of two different technologies. It means swapping out SRAM, used to store information directly on computer chips and integrating DRAM onto the chip instead.

IBM said it has been able to speed up the DRAM to the point where it's nearly as fast as SRAM. This creates embedded DRAM, or eDRAM, that helps boost the performance of chips with multiple core calculating engines and is particularly suited for enabling the movement of graphics in gaming and other multimedia applications.

More DRAM will be used off the chip.

The idea has been around for a while, but no one has quite managed to do it yet. IBM said the technology will be included in its server chips starting in 2008 and will expand to other products.

In its test runs, machines using the chips were just as fast as ordinary ones but only used as much energy as a light bulb.

More here. µ