Fujitsu Ltd. today announced it has begun offering the first samples of FCRAM (fast cycle random access memory) chips - a new type of memory chip developed by the company and targeted at high performance applications.
The first example of the new technology, which was first detailed by Fujitsu in 1998, is a 64M bit memory chip with a DDR (double data rate) SDRAM (synchronous dynamic RAM) interface. Running at clock speeds up to 200MHz, the chips feature a data transfer rate of 400M bits per second per pin. The data transfer rate is at least twice as fast as the speediest DRAM chip currently on the market, said Fujitsu.
The new chip is the first of several being planned by the Tokyo-based electronics maker, each of which will be targeted at a particular market, a spokeswoman for Fujitsu said. It is aimed at the graphics and multimedia market because of its high performance, she added, a key requirement in such systems because of the large amounts of data that need to be temporarily stored in memory.
Fujitsu said it is developing the chips because it sees a need for different types of memory chip, each developed with a specific application in mind, as being increasingly important as computer systems are used for increasingly diverse and demanding tasks.
The new chips are available in sample quantities now, with prices starting at US$25 per chip, and the company said it plans to offer enhanced versions with greater capacity and capable of higher speeds in the second half of 2000.
Fujitsu Ltd., in Tokyo, can be found online at http://www.fujitsu.co.jp/.