Memory moves

Memory company Spansion is set to develop new architectures, such as Eclipse and ORNAND2, which will allow it to address the wider memory market. “We have been focused on NOR,” said marketing director John Nation, “but we’re starting to break into the NAND market.” Spansion is looking to address applications beyond its current focus on embedded and integrated products by developing dram replacement technology and removable memory products. Reducing energy consumption in server farms is just one of the areas where Spansion sees an opportunity. According to Nation: “We’re looking to reduce the amount of energy consumed by replacing dram with our Mirrorbit technology. We can provide higher density with Mirrorbit and, as far as Spansion is concerned, we’re looking at a total solution.” Although trailing the memory market by one process node, Nation believes Spansion’s charge trapping technology will become rapidly more cost effective than traditional dram technology, which is facing increasing scaling problems. “But 80% of our business will be on 65nm and lower by 2010, by which time most of our revenues will come from new technologies, such as ORNAND2 and Eclipse.” He added that some products will be made on 300mm wafers using a 45nm process by the end of this year. Spansion is also claiming lower cost through a different approach to test. “Everyone is focused on process technology,” said Nation, “but there’s significant test costs. By moving test to the wafer level, we can use cheaper tests and reduce the overall cost by 25%.” * Meanwhile, Freescale is to spin out its mram technology, plus related IP and products, into a new company called EverSpin Technologies. Freescale will continue to develop embedded products based on mram.