Analysis: Samsung leapfrogs Numonyx in phase-change memory

LONDON — The race to bring phase-change non-volatile memory to market in integrated circuit form has been going on for 40 years and the two leading protagonists — Numonyx and Samsung — are only just out of the starting blocks.

So far it's a snail's-pace race but there is hope that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is going to pick up the pace now — possibly leaving Numonyx in its dust. However, it is unlikely that Samsung will dash Usain Bolt-like down the track, and there are pro and contra indicators for the take up of phase-change memory (PCM) otherwise known as phase-change random access memory (PRAM).

For both Numonyx, jointly owned by Intel and STMicroelectronics, and Samsung the technology derives from licenses and cooperation with Ovonyx Inc. formed as a spin-off from Energy Conversion Devices Inc., which performed some of the original research into phase-change in chalcogenide materials.

In both camps research intensified in the early part of this decade but has yet to produce a substantial revenue stream. This is slow progress by any measure.

Now Samsung has announced that it has begun production of a 60-nm 512-Mbit PRAM and is aiming it at mobile phone handsets and other battery-operated applications. The announcement comes almost three-years to the day after Samsung announced the existence of a prototype 512-Mbit phase-change RAM in September 2006. So it is clear that characterizing the data retention and reliability of such a memory has proved non-trivial.

Samsung has, however, jumped out of the starting blocks and got ahead of rival Numomyx.