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Cypress Semiconductor subsidiary AgigA Tech, a specialist in high-density, battery-free, non-volatile random access memory solutions, announced solutions in the AgigARAM non-volatile system family, which deliver densities up to 8GB.
The product family merges NAND Flash, DRAM and a battery-free ultracapacitor power source into a non-volatile memory system. When used as a write cache in enterprise-class applications, the company said the solutions provide a performance-boosting building block while guarding against power failures and consequent loss of critical data. The DDR3 products deliver data transfer speeds up to 1333 MT/s (megatransfers per second), a company release noted.
While some high-density alternatives, such as battery-backed memories, can be subject to long charge times and a limited operating life, the company said the AgigARAM system solves these problems with the use of a battery-free power sub-system, teamed with high-speed SDRAM, NAND Flash, intelligent power management and a proprietary system controller.
During normal operation, the system appears as a DDR3-registered DIMM to the host system like a standard high-speed, high-density SDRAM. In the event of a power loss, the system can be commanded to take control of the SDRAM and transfer its contents to Flash memory using energy from its ultracapacitor power source, preserving all the SDRAM data. After power is restored, the system can be commanded to transfer the contents back into the SDRAM and returns control to the host system. The company said this functionality can be used for power interruption/loss immunity, write caching and posting, data logging and journaling, instant-on recovery, and service and maintenance processing.
The company said the 8301 1GB DDR3-1333 AgigARAM solution is production-ready, with samples available to qualified customers. The 2GB, 4GB and 8GB 8401 DDR3-1333 solutions will be sampling to alpha customers later this quarter, with production expected in the fourth quarter of 2010. The 8401 and 8301 are both available in a 240-pin RDIMM form factor, a company release noted.
“AgigA Tech is completely focused on providing highly reliable non-volatile memory solutions to our customers,” said Ron Sartore, CEO of AgigA Tech. “Our newest additions to the AgigARAM portfolio deliver worry-free data-protection with DDR3-1333 performance, and demonstrate our leadership commitment to the market.”