Page 12 - EE|Times Europe Magazine - December 2020

12 EE|Times EUROPE — The Memory Market

Remote Work Spurs Desktop Performance Increases

generation wireless “is driving the ability to run a and largest-capacity mobile memory to date, and
richer experience on devices,” Bowker noted. “That we anticipate that it will power next-generation
calls attention to the ability to have memory in premium smartphones.”
place on the endpoint, not necessarily the laptop.” Indeed, smartphones have been topping desk-
Indeed, smartphone makers are adding more tops and laptops in terms of DRAM for about two
DRAM and flash storage to improve the user years, at 10 GB. Samsung has already seen a shift
experience, handle large files locally, and stream in memory demand from desktops to laptops to
high-resolution video. Memory performance support remote workers. Current smartphones
is also geared to support multitasking, akin to “have storage and DRAM densities comparable to
workstations. laptops, so the ability to utilize a smartphone as a
productivity device is limited only by the operating
AHEAD OF THE CURVE MPCs use the UFS system and available applications,” said Lum.
Memory vendors are ahead of the curve in terms high-performance storage From a storage perspective, Samsung has already
of DRAM and flash for 5G-enabled phones. Earlier interface to enable the low supplied UFS products for smartphones and tablets
this year, for example, Micron Technology began power consumption required in densities as high as 1 TB. The amount enables
sampling a universal flash storage (UFS) multichip in smartphones. mobile device manufacturers to provide storage
package (uMCP) with low-power DDR5 (LPDDR5) (Source: Micron Technology) comparable to laptops.
DRAM technology. The packages are designed to Other vendors have developed UFS embed-
fit in compact mid-range smartphones, making ded flash memory devices; for example, Kioxia
them ready for 5G-based applications, including augmented and virtual (formerly Toshiba Memory Corp.) uses its 96-layer bit-cost scalable 3D
reality. MCPs combine DRAM with NAND and an on-board controller flash memory. Those devices take advantage of a faster UFS interface
— a common smartphone architecture that reduces power consumption and support full duplexing, allowing simultaneous reading and writing
and memory footprint, thereby enabling smaller devices. between host processor and UFS device.
Elsewhere, Samsung’s 12-Gb LPDDR5 mobile DRAM, introduced last Overall, smartphones now have the compute, memory, and storage
year, represents a major leap from LPDDR4X. Initially targeted at 5G to become all-purpose devices. Still, analyst Bowker of Enterprise
handsets running AI applications, the uMCPs can also support PC-like Strategy Group said that demand for workstations will remain for
multitasking. graphics-heavy apps, fast CPU performance, and optimized memory for
“Premium smartphones enable more complex applications and mul- use cases like engineering design and medical imagery.
titasking that require better processor, storage, and DRAM specs,” said “That will never go away,” said Bowker. ■
Stephen Lum, senior product marketing manager for mobile and con-
sumer memory at Samsung Semiconductor Inc. “LPDDR5 is the fastest Gary Hilson is a contributing editor for AspenCore.

SPECIAL REPORT: MEMORY TECHNOLOGY
Memory Only a Piece of the Security Puzzle

By Gary Hilson
ecurity features for memory are must account for human error. Information system that also includes software.
not new, but increased connectivity security professionals must deal with the You could say that the dual SoCs — security
compounded by the pandemic-driven consequences of users opening spurious operations centers and systems-on-chip —
Ssurge in remote work means that attachments or a router being misconfigured. are merging.
safeguarding data is more critical and even Similarly, the benefits of secure mem- Companies such as Rambus offer prod-
more challenging. The security challenges are ory features won’t be fully realized unless ucts aimed at securing each connection in
amplified in emerging use cases in which data properly configured and in harmony across a response to increased server connectivity
is shared across communications infrastruc-
ture, including 5G.
Meanwhile, enabling security adds com-
plexity to memory designs.
Even before the exploding growth of edge
computing, the internet of things, and con-
nected cars, security features in memory were
proliferating. Electrically erasable program-
mable read-only memory (E PROM) is favored
2
for credit cards, SIM cards, and keyless entry
systems, while the “S” in SD card stands for
“secure,” and flash-based SSDs have for years
included encryption.
Security has steadily been embedded in
memory and networking devices that are
distributed throughout computing systems
and networking environments. But these Infineon’s Semper Secure NOR flash serves as a hardware root of trust while also
memory-based security capabilities still performing diagnostics and data correction for functional safety. (Source: Infineon Technologies)

DECEMBER 2020 | www.eetimes.eu