Samsung Electronics announced Thursday that it has successfully developed 64 megabit P (Phase Change) RAM technology and a trial product for the first time ever.

P RAM is the next generation semiconductor chip whose information processing is as speedy as D RAM and information will not be lost even if the electricity is turned off because a new ingredient was added to the original silicon board, the material for semiconductors.

The industry expects that the P RAM will dominate the memory semiconductor market worth US$46 billion in several years. The world?s major semiconductor manufacturers have been trying to develop P RAM, but Samsung Electronic has developed a 64 megabit trial product for the first time.

P RAM has a price competitiveness edge because it can be produced with existing semiconductor manufacturing equipment and the production process is simpler than other memory semiconductor chips. It operates at a low voltage of 2.5V and has the write speed of 120ns and read speed of 60ns. Its endurance is more than 1,000 times as strong as flash memory chips. It can save data at 85 degrees Celsius for more than two years.

Samsung will mass produce P RAM in earnest starting 2006.

From Digital Chosun