Samsung OneDRAM: High-end memory hits cellphones

Seoul (Korea) - Samsung today announced a new high-performance memory that promises to boost the performance of high-end smartphones.

The new memory, called OneDRAM, is described as fusion memory chip that can increase the data processing speed between a communication processor and a media processor in a handheld device. The first prototype was built as a 133 MHz 512 Mb device that uses a "dual-port approach" to accelerate data transfers.

Samsung said that OneDRAM can increase a cellphone's processing performance by a factor of five and cut power consumption by about 30% at the same time. The speed gain is a result of channeling data between the processors through a single chip, which eliminates the need to also specify DRAM and SRAM chips for buffer memory.

Another benefit, according to Samsung, is the fact that the memory needs substantially less space: The company claims that the technology can replace "at least" two memory chip in today's handhelds, which should result in space savings of about 50%.

Samsung said that OneDRAM could be introduced in handsets in the second half of 2007.