Page 15 - EE|Times Europe Magazine - December 2020

EE|Times EUROPE — The Memory Market 15

Plenty of Life Left in ‘Legacy’ Memories

INNOVATION CONTINUES architectures supporting NOR flash interfaces.
Legacy memory technology doesn’t preclude innovation — a reason that Demand is driven by reliability requirements for telecommunications,
companies like Cypress Semiconductor are wary of the “legacy” label, for example. “That’s one of our biggest businesses, and they are still
preferring instead to call earlier memory specifications “enduring.” using NOR flash because it’s still the most reliable nonvolatile memory,”
Even as high-performance computing, hyperscalers, AI, and machine Le said. Even as the protocols change from 4G to 5G, a lot of the underly-
learning are driving adoption of the latest DDR memory, NAND flash, ing hardware technology remains the same, he added.
and high-bandwidth memory, it’s data that’s driving innovation, said Then there is the reduction of risk inherent in the transition to
Sandeep Krishnegowda, marketing and applications director of the Flash a newer memory technology. “When you go to a new interface or a
Business Unit at Cypress, an Infineon unit. “When you get to the internet new technology, you’ve got to rewrite everything,” said Le. Macronix
of things, with its sensor and edge nodes, requirements haven’t changed also sees plenty of opportunities to innovate around small-density
all that much. People still want something that’s low-power. People still memories, not just because they’re cost-effective on a per-bit basis but
want something that’s reliable [and] works as it’s supposed to.” because many use cases require a small footprint, even as densities
That demand is reversing the decline of technologies such as NOR grow and interfaces run faster.
flash, a memory technology gaining a new lease on life in automotive Automotive applications in particular require qualified memory
applications, said Krishnegowda. Meanwhile, IoT and other emerging devices that will last a long time in an embedded environment subject
sectors like wearables are generating requirements for low-power to extreme temperatures. Newer memories are simply too expensive
memories with tiny footprints that are also reliable and secure. for automotive, Le said, or the required densities aren’t available in the
The network edge is also creating new memory applications, said right packaging. “That’s why NOR is still a sweet spot for automotive.”
Cypress product marketing engineer Doug Mitchell, including health There can be as many as four to six radar platforms in a car, each
care and distributed IoT sensor nodes for both consumer and industrial requiring memory to boot up. That memory must withstand harsh
applications. Instead of gigabytes of memory, billions of IoT sensor environmental conditions. NOR is preferred for its longevity. “The
nodes will require highly optimized, purpose-built memories for IoT technology is solid, and we can provide longevity in terms of supply to
applications, including NOR flash, traditional asynchronous SRAM, communication, automotive, and industrial — even medical,” said Le.
and FRAM. “You optimize those technologies for the use case, for the Medical applications also don’t require reinventing the wheel,
application, and that optimization occurs by minimizing power or even with new 5G wireless protocols. Designers are “not adding new
minimizing footprint or getting the right density size for that applica- interfaces for memory; the only thing that is being bolted on is com-
tion,” Mitchell said. munication modules,” said Le. With regulatory approvals taking years,
Memory technologies can also be tweaked for emerging applications. he said, “once you build a software stack for an MCU, the next version
“You can create whole new product portfolios,” said Mitchell. “That’s of that MCU has to be pretty damn close because you don’t want to
exactly the kind of business we’re attacking. We have purpose-built requalify that software stack.”
memories that go into these specific applications.” It’s not just the track record of the device itself that makes these
Edge computing, 5G infrastructure, and automotive all have enduring memories appealing, noted Krishnegowda of Cypress. “It’s
requirements for low-power memories such as NOR flash, reinforcing the entire supply chain [delivering] the product. If you’re counting on
Cypress’s “enduring” memory pitch. having products in automotive applications for the next 10 years, you
better have somebody who has a complete supply chain.”
MEMORY RELIABILITY As memory technologies expand into new realms such as per-
Macronix sees similar opportunities for memories considered legacy, sistence, legacy products remain relevant, a function of their simplicity,
including 5G and automotive applications. Anthony Le, the compa- reliability, and longevity. ■
ny’s senior marketing director, said that the death of NOR flash has
been predicted for a decade, but the company continues to develop Gary Hilson is a contributing editor for AspenCore.