A study more than a year ago pointed out that the prospects of NRAMs using carbon nanotubes are promising. In addition to a new investment, Nantero, a company that continues to develop NRAM technology, has received strong support from technology companies. , and pointed out that new products using NRAM are under development.
Nantero received funding from eight strategic investors, including five in the latest round of $29.7 million in fundraising, including Dell's Dell Technologies Capital, Cisco's Cisco Investments, the memory module maker Kingston Technology Corporation, and Chinese foundry company SMIC's investment company CFT Capital.
'If you look at these investors, you'll find that they have several of the world's top ten IC and memory component buyers; Greg Schmergel, co-founder and CEO of Nantero, said in a telephone interview with EE Times: 'This shows support for us.' The customer is not only a specific niche market player, but also a mainstream market leader. '
He stated that Nantero's most significant milestones include Fujitsu Semiconductor and Mie Fujitsu Semiconductor committing to bring NRAM to market in 2019; Nanterou already has more than a dozen companies in the consumer electronics, enterprise systems market Partners and customers in the semiconductor industry are actively developing NRAM solutions.
In addition, Schmergel pointed out that another milestone for the company is that its 16Gb (Gigabit) compatible DDR4 design is competitive with DRAM because of the use of a selector-free cross-point design. This allows us to fabricate multiple memory layers on a bare die; this product was originally made using a 28nm process, not the most advanced node, but it is a multi-layer architecture. And because of the characteristics of the carbon nanotube switch, we can No selector design. '
Nantero is also developing a single chip to be used as a cache for SSDs or hard drives; Schmergel said that it can eliminate the need for battery backup and significantly increase the capacity of cache memory. Hard disk speed. The company is also developing a variety of embedded products, including embedded non-volatile memory that can be scaled down to 5 nanometers, operates at a speed similar to DRAM and withstands high temperatures, and is suitable for automobiles or the Internet of Things ( IoT) application.
Schmergel said that the non-volatile nature of NRAM is as important as its ability to be as fast as DRAM: 'This is a great advantage for all the applications we are preparing to enter; first, it is clear that it can save a lot of power because no data update is needed (refresh ). When applied to smart phones, this can significantly extend battery life and standby time; if applied to the data center server, not only can save a lot of electricity, but also can avoid a lot of heat problems. More importantly, you do not Need battery or super capacitor backup, and DRAM will be needed in many enterprise applications.
Nantero's business model is to provide IP authorization only; Schmergel said that in most cases, customers will design their own products, and Nantero will provide them with support. He pointed out that the company already has a leading manufacturer customer in the automotive market. This type of memory is very exciting for cars, because NRAM can withstand the characteristics of high temperature; 'another application field we enthusiastically discuss with customers is artificial intelligence (AI), AI applications require fast speeds.'
And since Nantero will not launch its own branded products, Schmergel stated that there is no need to select a product: 'We support multiple customers, they can decide for themselves what products to launch, and then we support them in bringing their products to market; There may also be many different NRAM products developed at the same time.
Co-founder and senior editor Chris Spivey, the co-founder and senior editor of market research firm BCC Research, co-authored the report. A report published last year pointed out that Nantero’s proprietary NRAM business model is very meaningful, and the company may eventually be acquired by a big company: It may be Apple, it may be other semiconductor manufacturers. '
However, although BCC Research believes that NRAM products have potential, Spivey has been skeptical about Nantero's technology; however, he said that after consulting with other experts, these concerns have been mostly eliminated. The real problem with Nantero is that this technology insists on not wanting to give up. Expanding the market territory, but because there are other intersection architecture technologies, and there are still some uncertainties, it is difficult to achieve commercial cases.
Spivey said that before Nantero revealed the latest developments, there have been a number of companies intending to establish business relations: 'These companies are a bit like indicating that they are prepared to support the future of carbon storage.'
Compilation: Judith Cheng