PRAM Volume Production to Start in 2H of 2007: Intel CTO

Apr 18, 2007 18:13 Chikashi Horikiri, Nikkei Electronics

Intel Corp. has revealed a prototype PRAM (phase change RAM) wafer, long under development, at IDF Spring 2007 in Beijing, China, which began on April 16, 2007. At the keynote speech, Intel's CTO Justin Rattner announced, "the company will start mass-production of PRAM as early as the second half of 2007." He also said, "We consider replacing NOR flash memory with PRAM first, but that's not our goal. PRAM may possibly replace DRAM in the near future. We are paying a lot of attention to the technology."

Companies who expect that it will become a non-volatile memory successor to flash memory, including Intel, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. of Korea, Francho-Italian STMicroelectronics, are accelerating the development of PRAM, which is also called phase-change memory. Intel had previously disclosed a plan to ship 90-nm sample PRAM for assessment by the end of the first quarter of 2007.

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