Matsushita licenses MoSys one-transistor SRAM for communications ICs

Matsushita licenses MoSys one-transistor SRAM for communications ICs
By Semiconductor Business News
April 12, 2002 (4:17 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20020412S0060

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--MoSys Inc. today announced it has licensed its one-transistor SRAM sell technology to Matsushita Communication Industrial Co. Ltd. in Japan for embedded design use in ICs for communications applications. Terms of the licensing agreement were not released.

"As the industry continues to embed larger and larger quantities of high-performance memory on SoC [system-on-chip] designs, 1T-SRAM enables customers to reach new levels of performance, quality and cost that cannot be achieved with other embedded memory technologies," stated Mark-Eric Jones, vice president and general manager of intellectual property at MoSys in Sunnyvale.

MoSys' 1T-SRAM technology has been licensed to a number of consumer and communications chip makers and foundries. It replaces conventional six-transistor SRAM cells that are often used in logic-based processes for SoC designs. MoSys said its licensees have already shipped more than 20 million ICs incorpora ting a total of over 1 billion megabits of 1T-SRAM embedded memory.

In January, MoSys announced a new 0.13-micron 1T-SRAM-R memory macro, which adds what the company calls "Transparent Error Correction" to a new cell layout and eliminates 20% die-area penalty typically associated with error checking and correction (ECC) functions in traditional six-transistor SRAMs (see Jan. 28 story).