Elpida Memory has announced that the company has developed its first-ever high-speed non-volatile resistance memory (ReRAM) prototype, jointly with Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). Built using a 50nm process technology, the prototype chip has a memory cell array operation of 64 megabits - one of the highest densities possible for ReRAM.

Further work on ReRAM development is being conducted with Sharp, Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and the University of Tokyo, Elpida indicated.

While DRAM is superior to existing non-volatile memory with respect to read/write speeds and endurance, DRAM quickly loses data when the power supply is removed. NAND flash memory retains data even when the power is removed, but has performance measures that are inferior to DRAM.

ReRAM is next-generation semiconductor memory technology that uses material which changes resistance in response to changes in the electric voltage. This new type of non-volatile memory can store data even when the power supply is turned off, and can read/write data at high speeds using little voltage, Elpida said. ReRAM has a write speed of 10 nanoseconds (ns), about the same as DRAM, and write endurance of more than a million times, or more than 10 times greater than NAND flash, Elpida added.

Elpida revealed it plans to continue development toward a 2013 goal of volume production of ReRAM in the gigabit capacity class using a 30nm process technology. If the high-speed durable new memory can be provided at low cost it will contribute enormously to a reduction of memory power consumption. This will make it an attractive storage (recording medium) option in a variety of information technology products, such as smartphones, tablet devices and ultra-thin light notebook PCs, Elpida said.