Coming soon to a smartphone or tablet near you: a memory chip that can make your device 10 times faster—but only a third as power-thirsty.
Japanese and United States companies are now working to create such a new memory chip dubbed magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), Nikkei reported.
But the new RAM may not likely reach the masses until at least 2018, it added.
Potentially, the new memory may have up to 10 times the capacity and writing speed of Dynamic RAM (DRAM), the present standard - while consuming only a third of the power requirement of DRAM.
This could boost standby time from "dozens of hours to a few hundred," the report said.
Researchers
Presently, at least 20 Japanese and US semiconductor firms are working to develop a way to mass-produce these chips.
Among the companies from Japan are:
Tokyo Electron, the world's third-biggest manufacturer of chipmaking equipment
Shin-Etsu Chemical, the top silicon wafer maker
chipmaker Renesas Electronics
electronics conglomerate Hitachi.
Meanwhile, the US is represented by Micron Technology, the world's second biggest producer of DRAM chips.
Nikkei reported the companies are to send a "few dozen" researchers to Tohoku University in northern Japan, and start development on MRAM by February 2014.
The team led by Tohoku University professor Tetsuo Endoh will seek to attract the support of US and European companies.
Mass production by 2018
However, MRAM may not likely reach the masses until at least 2018, as the companies are still figuring out how to mass-produce it.
Also, Nikkei noted other companies are working on the technology as well, including Toshiba and Korea's SK Hynix; and Samsung Electronics.
"All told, chipmakers controlling 90% of the global market are shifting to MRAM," it said. — TJD, GMA News
source: gmanetwork.com
