A flavor of resistive RAM (ReRAM) has overcome a significant hurdle that has it nipping at DRAM's heels.

4DS Memory Limited recently announced that architectural changes to its patented Interface Switching ReRAM have improved read access so dramatically that it is now comparable to DRAM. In a telephone interview with EE Times, company CEO and Managing Director Guido Arnout said the development places the company in a hallway with a lot of doors it could potentially walk through.

The challenge for most emerging memory technologies, including ReRAM, has been inherently high bit error rates, which in most cases, he said, is caused by large random cell current fluctuations. Error correction techniques have traditionally been used to reliably retrieve the data, but these are typically time consuming and negatively affect read access time and cripple read speed.

Arnout said that an extensive current fluctuation study has not found any large current fluctuations with 4DS' Interface Switching ReRAM, which means it requires minimal error correction. This enables high-density storage class memory with effective read speeds comparable to DRAM that previously weren't attainable. Over the past year, he said the company has also achieved scalability to 40nm and significantly boosted endurance.

The “holy grail" was to create a storage class memory that could compete with NAND flash, said Arnout, but that technology has dropped in price quickly. Rather, the opportunity for 4DS' ReRAM is between DRAM and flash. “The space between DRAM and storage is so huge," he said.

By: DocMemory
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