IBM unveils Ultra-Fast On-Chip Memory Technology

International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) on Wednesday announced that it had developed a new technique for putting memory on a chip that will greatly improve microprocessor performance in multi-core designs and speed the movement of graphics in gaming, networking, and other image intensive, multi-media applications.

The new on- chip memory technology, to which the company proclaimed as a boon for networking, gaming and multi-media applications, triples the amount of memory stored on computer chips and doubles the performance of data-hungry processors by replacing a contested type of memory with a variety that uses much less space on the silicon chip.

The Armonk, New York-based IBM yesterday outlined the technical details of its breakthrough at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC).

The first-of-its-kind, on-chip memory technology features the fastest access times ever recorded in embedded dynamic random access memory (eDRAM). IBM said its eDRAM was designed to provide high performance without guzzling electricity. According to IBM engineers, tests showed eDRAM processing data ten times faster than the DRAM technology usually used in personal computers.

By claiming that its new on- chip memory technology has the fastest access time ever recorded in embedded dynamic random access memory, IBM has set up itself along with its partner Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) for aggrandized competition with Intel in the chip market.

"IBM is effectively doubling microprocessor performance beyond what classical scaling alone can achieve," Subramanian Iyer, IBM's director of technology development, said in the statement. "As semiconductor components have reached the atomic scale, design innovation at the chip level has replaced materials science as a key factor in continuing Moore's Law."

Moore's Law is a decades-old prediction by Gordon Moore, cofounder of the Intel Corporation, stating that the number of transistors on a microprocessor doubles every two years.

At the conference, Big Blue further said that instead of SRAM (static RAM), used to store information directly on computer chips, it intends to integrate another kind of memory called DRAM (dynamic RAM) because the embedded memory cache built onto each of its chips.

IBM expects to make the eDRAM technology available in its 45-nanometer microprocessor line, which will start coming out in 2008. The technology initially will be included in its entire range of 45nm server chips starting next year but the company would later expand it to other products.

IBM is already integrating the new embedded DRAM (eDRAM) in 65nm prototype chips. Being the chief supplier of chips for all three of the top gaming consoles, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s PlayStation 3 (PS3), Nintendo Co.'s Wii and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, IBM’s new technology could play big role in consumer electronics market.