Samsung throws flash memory out of its PRAM

CHIP CHAEBOL Samsung said it has made a prototype memory device which will displace high density NOR flash in the next ten years.

The acronym for phase-change Random Access Memory is PRAM, and Samsung showed off a 512 megabit device today. This non-volatile PRAM can re-write without erasing existing data and that will make it 30 times faster than flash memory, Samsung claims.

It will also last 10 times the life span of flash, and devices will start to appear in 2008, needing 20 per cent less process steps than NOR flash needs.

The devices will use vertical diodes with the 3D trannie structure that is used to make DRAM, while PRAM has a .0467µ (micron) squared cell size.

The firm also said it had released a 32 gigabit NAND flash device using a 40 nanometre process. µ