Elpida enters reRam production fray: 30nm DRAM competitor by 2013

Elpida Memory Inc. has produced a ReRam [nonvolatile resistance memory, a DRAM/flash memory competitor] prototype on 50nm at a 64-Mbits capacity, with 10ns write cycles, and 1 million read-write endurance cycles. The substrate material is undisclosed:

The prototype was jointly developed with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), a Japanese-funded public institution. Further work on ReRAM development is being conducted with Sharp Corporation, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST, another Japanese public institution) and the University of Tokyo. [link]

Samsung reported in early july that they had prototyped non-volatile resistive RAM to a 1 trillion read write endurance rate. But Elpida is an acquisition target currently in the frenzy of merger talks: so any announcements such as “…plans to continue development toward a 2013 goal of volume production of ReRAM in the gigabit capacity class using a 30-nm process technology” should be taken with a grain of Ta2O5−x/TaO2−x. They have been promoting their move out of the DRAM market with partnerships for awhile, such as their charge-trapping NAND Flash memory from 2010 with Spansion Inc.

The merger candidates for Elpida currently are Nanya Technology and Micron Technology. This is along the lines of HP and Hynix announcement of trying to reach reRam production by 2013.