Market Applications of Ovonic Unified Memory (OUM)
Target products for OUM technology address market segments with a $173 billion total annual value (2006). Product applications include:
- Flash Memory - OUM is a direct replacement for this very popular type of nonvolatile memory, and it has the advantage of enormously improved cycle life, significantly reduced programming time and lower manufacturing cost. Flash memory was the most rapidly growing segment of the semiconductor memory market. In 2006, it achieved a Total Annual Market (TAM) of $22 billion — a 38 percent increase from 2004. Growth of the Flash market has been fueled by the rapidly growing popularity of cellular telephones, digital cameras and many other portable battery-operated communication and information devices.
- DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) - OUM can provide a direct replacement for this fundamental commodity memory technology — universally used as system memory in computers. In this application, OUM will have the unique advantage of being nonvolatile while still being competitive with DRAM in terms of manufacturing cost because of its small cell size. DRAM achieved a TAM of $28 billion in 2006, with annual growth of 8 percent.
- SRAM (Static Random Access Memory - OUM has the capability - with further increases in programming speed - to be used as a replacement for SRAM, the high-speed memory technology used in communication applications and as cache memory to speed data flow through microprocessors. When used in SRAM replacement applications, OUM’s small cell size will be a very competitive advantage since conventional SRAM now requires either four or six transistors per cell. SRAM achieved a TAM of $3 billion in 2006.
- Field Programmable Logic Devices (FPLDs) and Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are an important segment of the MOS logic market. These devices are widely used in networking infrastructure, video games, computer chipsets, etc. The ability to use OUM technology will permit the manufacture of nonvolatile, high cycle-life reprogrammabile devices. This will provide a key competitive advantage over mask-programmable, one-time programmable and volatile SRAM reprogrammable and Flash reprogrammable solutions. MOS logic achieved a TAM of $62 billion in 2006, which represents a 24 percent increase from 2004.
- Embedded Memory in microprocessors, microcontrollers and System-on-a-Chip (SOC) applications - OUM’s competitive advantage in this very important and growing segment of the semiconductor device market comes from its ability to be integrated easily into the process flow that’s used for logic devices. OUM’s ability to be embedded in these devices enables the high level of integration of memory and logic functions that will be necessary for both high-performance computing and for a wide range of low-cost embedded microprocessor and SOC applications in consumer electronic devices. Microprocessor/microcontroller devices achieved an aggregate TAM in 2006 of $58 billion, which represents a 14 percent increase from 2004.
- Radiation-hard applications
- Encryption applications
- Neural networks
Source: Semiconductor Industry Association