Technology

Memory has become a major bottleneck for industry growth drivers, such as AR/VR, Machine Learning (ML), Internet-of-Things (IoT), and Automotive, where the performance and power efficiencies are limited due to data movement between the various memory hierarchies and the operational units. In fact, today, the amount of embedded memory on almost any integrated circuit (chip) is reaching hundreds of megabits, accounting often for up-to 75% of the total chip area. Today’s predominant on-chip memory solution, based on SRAM, no longer provides the density requirements of modern systems, reaching the end of its scaling in advanced CMOS technologies.

Important industry growth drivers, such as ML, IoT, Automotive and AR/VR, operate on ever-growing amounts of data that is typically stored off-chip in an external DRAM. Unfortunately, off-chip memory accesses are up-to 1000x more costly in latency and power compared to on-chip data movement. This limits the bandwidth and power efficiency of modern systems. In order to reduce these off-chip data movements, almost all SoCs incorporate large amounts of on-chip embedded memory caches that are typically implemented with SRAM and often constitute over 50% of the silicon area. This memory bottleneck is further aggravated since SRAM scaling has reached its limits and no longer shrinks in advanced CMOS process nodes beyond 5nm.

 

RAAAM’s Gain-Cell RAM (GCRAM) is the most cost-effective on-chip memory technology in the semiconductor industry. GCRAM combines the density advantages of embedded DRAM with SRAM performance, without any modifications to the standard CMOS process, resolving the memory bottleneck for industry growth drivers. RAAAM’s GCRAM technology has already been validated on silicon of leading semiconductor foundries in process nodes ranging 16nm – 180nm.

Microphotographs of Silicon Implementations of RAAAM’s GCRAM Technology in 16nm-180nm Processes

Product Portfolio

High-Density GCRAM Macros

Key Features

  • Up-to 2X Higher density vs. SRAM
  • Up-to 3X Lower power vs. SRAM
  • Standard SRAM interface
  • Extended interface options vs. SRAM

Application Targets

  • AI and ML – Weight / Input buffers
  • IoT and MCU – System buffers
  • Automotive – Large memory caches
  • Media Processing – Image / Video buffers

Standard-Cell Memory Compiler

Key Features

  • Ultra-low voltage operation
  • Full flexibility on size / no. of ports
  • Easy migration to any process node
  • Easy integration (soft macro)

Application Targets

  • Ultra-low voltage operating memories
  • IoT – lower power caches for edge sensing
  • DSP – memories of LDPC decoders
  • MCUs – multi-ported L0/L1 caches / Reg. Files

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