T-RAM and Global Foundries Join Forces

T-RAM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES enter into Joint Development Agreement for application of T-RAM’s Thyristor-RAM embedded memory to advanced technology nodes

MILPITAS, Calif. - T-RAM Semiconductor Inc. (T-RAM) and GLOBALFOUNDRIES announced today that they have entered into a joint development agreement targeted toward the application of T-RAM’s Thyristor-RAM embedded memory to advanced technology nodes.

According to Gregg Bartlett, Senior Vice President of Technology and R&D at GLOBALFOUNDRIES, “We are pleased to be jointly developing T-RAM memory for 32nm and 22nm technologies. T-RAM’s embedded memory technology shows a great deal of potential for use in low-power, high-performance dense cache applications for advanced technology nodes.”

Sam Nakib, President and CEO of T-RAM, added, “We are excited about working with GLOBALFOUNDRIES on the next generation embedded memory technology. T-RAM has successfully completed extensive development of the Thyristor-RAM technology and has delivered a fully manufacturable and robust memory solution with proven yield, reliability, and low-cost of integration in earlier technology nodes. We believe that GLOBALFOUNDRIES and their customers’ products provide a great opportunity to further develop and show-case T-RAM’s significant performance and economic advantages. T-RAM’s revolutionary Thyristor-RAM memory technology provides the highest combination of density and performance among all embedded memory technology candidates, and avoids the fundamental scalability challenges that face 6T-SRAM and other FET-based memory cells.”

• The joint development agreement is targeted at implementing T-RAM’s embedded memory technology into our manufacturing processes at the 32nm node and below.
• The technology can be used in bulk and SOI processes, which are both being aggressively developed by GLOBALFOUNDRIES for advanced nodes.
   
• The increase in density offered by T-RAM’s embedded memory has the potential to enable much larger on-chip cache memories.
• Not only can this technology be used to enhance the performance and power-consumption of microprocessors, but it also shows promise for other applications, such as system-on-chip designs for netbooks, smartphones, and other mobile devices.
   
• The technology has been proven at earlier nodes, but this will be the first implementation in a leading-edge process.
• We have a history of bringing up leading-edge technologies in high volume with mature yields. Working with T-RAM to develop and implement this technology will help drive the learning curve and reduce the barriers of entry for our customers.