Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. announced Monday (Sept. 11) it has completed the industry's first fully working prototype of a 512-Mbit Phase-change Random Access Memory (PRAM).

Samsung said at a news conference here that its PRAM has been developed by adopting the use of vertical diodes with the three"dimensional transistor structure that it now uses to produce a DRAM. The PRAM has the smallest cell size of any working memory that is free of inter-cell noise, allowing virtually unlimited scalability, the company said.

The PRAM features the fast processing speed of RAM for its operating functions combined with the nonvolatile features of flash memory for storage, giving it the nickname of "Perfect RAM", Samsung said.

As the PRAM can rewrite data without having to first erase data previously accumulated, it is effectively 30-times faster than conventional flash memory. It is also expected to have at least 10-times the endurance of the conventional flash memory, Samsung added.

Samsung claimed the PRAM would become a competitive choice over NOR flash, with availability beginning sometime in 2008.

By: DocMemory
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