Rambus Speeds Up Memory Processing in Mobile Phones

Memory chip technology firm, Rambus says that it has developed a high-speed memory architecture which significantly boosts the data transfer rate between memory chips and the processors in mobile phones. The company says that with this performance, designers could realize more than 17 Gigabytes per second of memory bandwidth from a single mobile DRAM device - which compares the average of 266 Megabits per second currently available.

In low-power modes, the data transfer rate would be a slower, but still impressive 4.3Gbps. The company expects that the new development could allow mobile phones to match the performance of conventional PCs in handling video and gaming applications.

"As consumer expectations grow for more media-rich applications on their mobile devices, new memory solutions will be needed to keep pace with the rapidly increasing bandwidth requirements," said Martin Scott, senior vice president of Research and Technology Development at Rambus. "With the breakthrough technologies developed through the Mobile Memory Initiative, Rambus enables a broad range of advanced mobile applications that will enrich the lives of consumers worldwide."

Rambus' Mobile Memory Initiative includes

• Very Low-Swing Differential Signaling - combines the robust signaling qualities of a differential architecture with innovative circuit techniques to greatly reduce active power consumption;
• FlexClocking Architecture - a clock-forwarded and clock-distributed topology, enables high-speed operation and a simplified DRAM interface; and
• Power State Management - in conjunction with the FlexClocking architecture, provides fast switching times between power-saving modes and delivers optimized power efficiency across a diverse range of usage profiles.

The firm may have some difficulty licensing the technology to other firms though - as it is notoriously litigious and is currently suing a several of its potential customers for infringing previous patents. The platform would have to be demonstratively valuable to the chip-vendors to overcome their reluctance to deal with the firm.

Posted to the site on 3rd February 2009