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Apacer Technology has launched the DDR4 VLP Mini RDIMM memory module for networking, telecommunications and embedded systems, as it responds to key trends such as cloud computing, IoT and big data in the networking industry worldwide in recent years. Compliant with new generation ATCA (Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture) specifications for telecommunications and communication equipment, the DDR4 VLP Mini RDIMM memory module measures 0.738" high. It is suitable for space-constrained 1U rack systems, blade servers and embedded systems, effectively improving heat dissipation, and improving system stability and reliability.Networking and telecommunication specifications in the past were complicated and not standardised, causing many unnecessary problems in system design. ATCA is a new series of open architecture specifications developed for networking, telecommunications and industrial automation computer products. This series of specifications allows networking, communication and storage devices to be integrated on a single platform, greatly lessening the burden of monitoring and management. Adopting the common industry platform, Apacer’s new DDR4 VLP Mini RDIMM memory module fits into networking and communication equipment, such as router, gateway and switch, and embedded industrial automation equipment, reducing R&D costs and shortening time to market. Its expandability also provides convenience in the integration of the networking environment.JEDEC-compliant Apacer DDR4 VLP Mini RDIMM memory module measures only 80mm long, which is 60% the length of the standard 133mm RDIMM. Available in 4 and 8GB capacities, its 1.2V ultra-low operating voltage is up to 30% more power saving. The DDR4 also supports deep power-down mode, reducing close to 50% standby power consumption. Its power efficiency is particularly significant in satisfying the requirement for low power consumption in industrial embedded, networking and server systems. It is equipped with ECC function to ensure memory access reliability and data integrity, and has built-in thermal sensor that monitors temperature changes during memory module operation and optimises power use. Apacer DDR4 VLP Mini RDIMM memory module demonstrates high-speed transmission and low power consumption within space-constraint systems. Furthermore, its ATCA-compliance allows for system integration, providing the highest quality and stability. Ref:KY32-AT49BV162AT(T)KY32-K9T1G08U0M-YIBOKY32-CY7C131E-55NXI

New industrial-grade microSDHC/XC memory cards have been launched by Apacer Technology which are custom-built for video monitoring equipment to endure long hours of continuous data writing. Not only are Apacer microSDXC UHS-1(U3) memory cards available in capacities ranging from 4-128GB, their Ultra High Speed Class 3 specification also supports smooth Full-HD, 3D and 4K video recording, which is particularly significant in video monitoring applications that require continuous recording and sustain high wear rate.  Their durability, endurance and performance make them suitable for surveillance video recorders, dashcams for fleet vehicles and government use, and webcams.High-endurance memory cards, high-reliability assuranceUnlike those used for photographs and storing small files, Apacer memory cards are designed to endure extensive write cycles. Industrial-grade high-endurance microSDHC/XC memory cards are developed for security surveillance equipment that requires all-year-round uninterrupted data writing, ensuring high-quality images and data integrity required for long-lasting video recording. When using the 128GB ultra high capacity microSDXC memory card to record Full-HD in 20FPS, it can record for up to 20,000 hours; in loop recording, it can store 32 hours of video footage with automatic write-over. In an emergency when both quality and performance are required in the video surveillance system, Apacer microSD memory cards protect and store data securely, providing high endurance and high capacity.Improved speed, enhanced access performanceFeaturing Ultra High Speed Class 3 (U3) specification, Apacer microSD memory cards have maximum read/write speed of 75/65MB per second. The memory cards also support ECC (Error Correcting Code) to automatically check data and provide timely error correction, preventing data loss and damage, and increasing data accuracy and integrity. When teamed with 128GB (SDXC) large capacity, they become a suitable storage device for security surveillance systems.All Apacer microSDHC/SDXC memory cards are temperature-resistant, shockproof, waterproof, anti-static and x-ray-proof, allowing surveillance systems to operate reliably in a harsh environment. The memory cards also feature high quality MLC flash memory chip and customised firmware optimised management tools, such as write protect which prevents precious data from being written over or erased by mistake. Furthermore, the memory cards support ECC to reduce data error arising from constant overwrite, and wear-leveling and S.M.A.R.T. techniques which automatically monitor memory health status, improving product reliability and lifespan. Ref:KY32-K9T1G08U0M-YIBOKY32-CY7C1357S-100AXCKY32-70V639S10BC8

Carbon-based memory materials promise to revolutionise how data is stored and to take computing to a new age in terms of speed, efficiency and power. Improved data storage represents the backbone of the knowledge economy, as well as modern industry, business and multimedia. Creating non-volatile data storage can be accomplished through new carbon-based memory materials, which was the aim of the Carbon resistive random access memory materials project.The project team investigated how to develop eco-friendly, cost-effective and energy-efficient memory materials that are scalable to the molecular level and boast a sub-nanosecond switching time with advanced functionality overall.To achieve its aims the team worked on two areas. On one hand it investigated amorphous-carbon based materials and devices in order to supplement current memory technologies such as hard disks and flash memory.On the other it considered graphene-oxide memories for possible use in flexible electronics applications. Storage capabilities in both concepts involved electrical resistive switching, which led to more in-depth research on the topic and establishment of the technology’s limitations, including minimum device size, temperature range and switching speed.The work involved experiments to pinpoint predicted lifetime at different temperatures, multi-level storage capability, suitability within specific applications, and several other pivotal parameters required to develop the technology. After intensive laboratory work, the team successfully built and characterised prototype devices that achieved almost all of the desired objectives.CARERAMM built nanometre amorphous-carbon based devices with sub-petajoule switching energy and oversaw their successful operation at temperatures reaching 300 degrees C. The project built graphene oxide-based devices with 4-level storage and endurance on flexible substrates, as well as GO-based devices that can resist more than 10,000 bending cycles and high bending radii.Overall the team has produced valuable knowledge on the cutting-edge of resistive switching concerning both amorphous carbon and graphene oxide based materials and devices. It combined atomistic scale modelling with nanoscale characterisation to improve switching considerably, paving the way for the commercialisation of advanced carbon-based memory in the near future.Reference:SDUS5EB-001GCXA1512M MT9VDDT6472HY-335 F2 

While investigating mass transit accidents, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials often rely on digital clues left behind in flash memories of any and all electronic devices—both personal and professional—at a crash site. With the physical forces and high-temperature fires associated with many crashes, memory units are often damaged and sometimes unreadable.Researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York have figured out how much damage memory units can sustain before becoming unreadable and new repair techniques to retrieve clues off of damaged units, which might help prevent future tragedies."The biggest surprise was how much punishment these devices can take before ceasing to function," said Steve Cain, who is the project manager and a senior research support specialist in the Integrated Electronics Engineering Center (IEEC) at Binghamton University. "As part of their post-crash investigations, the NTSB collects anything and everything at the scene, including personal electronic devices. If the device was active during or just before the crash, it is possible that the data stored in the memory can provide clues as to the cause of the crash. Most of the time the device is ruined, but sometimes it is intact."The interdisciplinary Binghamton group of Cain, Preeth Sivakumar, Jack Lombardi, and Mark Poliks along with James Cash, Joseph Gregor, and Michael Budinski from the NTSB, presented "Fire Damage and Repair Techniques for Flash Memory Modules: Implication for Post-Crash Investigations" at the Fall 2016 International Symposium of Microelectronics.Scientists found plastic coverings started to break down after three hours of exposure to temperatures of 300 degrees Celsius, or about 572 degrees Fahrenheit or more, but memory chips were still readable.Researchers pointed out that even with the pressures and forces in play during past crashes, temperatures typically only reach those levels for short periods of time."Data integrity was maintained even in a plasma discharge," Cain said. "Basically, if the device doesn't burn up, there is a reasonable chance of the data being retained in the chip. The only problem is that the connections to the memory chips may be broken, so that the data cannot be read."For the second part of the study, researchers addressed the readability issue. The team purposely damaged memory units and then extracted memory chips using acid, lasers, plasma, or mechanical polishing.Lasers were the most effective extraction method and mechanical extractions was the simplest, but each method still damaged the wire bonds within memory chips and made many unreadable. A specialized metallic ink from a precision printer was used to restore functionality."These results expand the investigative scope for aviation accidents, where the data rather than the device is of paramount importance," the team concluded. "It is possible to repair the interconnections of flash memory modules, provided the chip is intact." Reference:MT16JTF51264AZ-1G6M1SDUS5EB-001GMD2202-D192 

Scientists often discover interesting things without completely understanding how they work. That has been the case with an experimental memory technology in which temperature and voltage work together to create the conditions for data storage. But precisely how was unknown. But when a Stanford team found a way to untangle the chip’s energy and heat requirements, their tentative findings revealed a pleasant surprise: The process may be more energy efficient than was previously supposed.That’s good news for next-generation mobile devices whose batteries would last longer if they were powering lower energy chips. The group that made this discovery, led by Stanford electrical engineer H.-S. Philip Wong, is presenting the paper when the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) brings leading researchers to San Francisco Dec. 5.The new technology the team investigated is called resistive random-access memory, or RRAM for short. RRAM is based on a new type of semiconductor material that forms digital zeros and ones by resisting or permitting the flow of electrons.RRAM has the potential to do things that aren’t possible with silicon: for instance, being layered on top of computer transistors in new three-dimensional, high-rise chips that would be faster and more energy efficient than current electronics, which is ideal for smartphones and other mobile devices where energy efficiency is a vital feature.But while engineers can observe that RRAM does store data, they don’t know exactly how these new materials work. “We need much more precise information about the fundamental behavior of RRAM before we can hope to produce reliable devices,” Wong said. So to help engineers understand some of the unknowns, Wong’s team built a tool to measure the basic forces that make RRAM chips work.Graduate student Zizhen Jiang of the Stanford team explained the basics: RRAM materials are insulators, which normally do not allow electricity to flow, she said. But under certain circumstances, insulators can be induced to let electrons flow.Past research had shown how: Jolting RRAM materials with an electric field causes a pathway to form that permitted electron flows. This pathway is called a filament. To break the filament, researchers apply another jolt and the material becomes an insulator again. So each jolt switched the RRAM from zero to one or back, which is what makes the material useful for data storage.But electricity is not the only force at play in RRAM switching. Pumping electrons into any material raises its temperature. That’s the principle behind electric stoves. In the case of RRAM, it was the elevated temperature caused by introducing voltage that induced filaments to form or break. The question was what voltage-induced temperature was needed to cause the switching. No one knew.Before the new Stanford study researchers thought short bursts of voltage, sufficient to generate temperatures of about 1,160ºF – hot enough to melt aluminum – was the switching point. But those were estimates because there was no way to measure the heat generated by an electric jolt. “In order to begin to answer our questions, we had to decouple the effects of voltage and temperature on filament formation,” said Ziwen Wang, another graduate student on the team.Essentially, the Stanford researchers had to heat the RRAM material without using an electric field. So they put an RRAM chip on a micro thermal stage (MTS) device – a sophisticated hot plate capable of generating a wide range of temperatures inside the material.Of course the objective was not merely to heat the material, but also to measure how filaments formed. Here they took advantage of the fact that RRAM materials are insulators in their natural state. That makes them digital zeros. As soon as a filament formed electrons would flow. The digital zero would become a digital one, which the researchers could detect.Using this experimental model, the team put RRAM chips on the burner and cranked up the heat, starting at about 80ºF – roughly the temperature of a warm room – all the way up to 1,520ºF, hot enough to melt a silver coin. Heating the RRAM to various temperatures in between these extremes, the researchers measured precisely if and how RRAM switched from its native zero to a digital one.To their pleasant surprise, the researchers observed that filaments could form more efficiently at ambient temperatures between 80ºF and 260ºF, which is hotter than boiling water – contrary to prior expectation that hotter was better.If confirmed by subsequent research, this would be good news because in a working chip the switching temperature would be created by the voltage and duration of the electric jolt. Efficient switching at lower temperatures would require less electricity and make RRAM more energy efficient and extend battery life when used as the memory in mobile devices.Much work remains to be done to make RRAM memory practical but this research provides the test bed to vary conditions systematically instead of relying on hit-and-miss hunches. “Now we can use voltage and temperature as design inputs in a predictive manner and that is going to enable us to design a better memory device,” Wang said.Reference:MT16JTF51264AZ-1G6M1SDUS5EB-001GMD2202-D192  

A low-cost, low-risk memory solution has been announced by Microchip, it offers unlimited endurance and safe data storage at power loss. This I2C EERAM memory is an easy to implement, Non-Volatile SRAM (NVSRAM) that can be used by applications that need to constantly or instantaneously record, update or monitor data in sectors which include metering, automotive and industrial.EERAM is a standalone SRAM with shadow EEPROM back-up on a single chip that helps to automatically retain the contents of the SRAM memory when system power is lost. The EERAM offers instant random writes to the array with no write-cycle delay. The I2C EERAM family is available in 4 and 16Kb densities and in standard 8-pin SOIC, TSSOP and PDIP packages. EERAM is available in 3.0 and 5.0V options and in industrial and automotive temperature ranges, of -40 to 85°C and -40 to 125°C respectively and is also available as an automotive-grade memory.Comprised of two familiar and reliable memory technologies on a single chip, EEPROM and SRAM, EERAM offers a robust and dependable data solution that is also the lowest cost non-volatile SRAM solution. EERAM does not require an external battery to safely store data during a power-loss event. Instead, a small, external capacitor is used to provide the energy needed to store the contents of the SRAM on to the EEPROM when system power is lost.Key features:I2C EERAM is a low-cost NVSRAM that requires no external battery to retain dataCombines SRAM with EEPROM back-up on a single chip for lowest-cost NVSRAM solutionEnables instant random writes to the array with no write-cycle delayBenefits applications which constantly or instantaneously record, update or monitor dataAvailable in industrial and automotive temperature rangesReference:KY32-BQ2201SN-NKY32-DP8421AV-20KY32-DS1321KY32-MXD1210CSA+