SINGULUS sucht strategischen Partner für MRAM-Geschäft - 500 Beiträge pro Seite | Diskussion im Forum

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Die SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES AG teilte am Mittwoch mit, dass sie dieInvestmentbank Lazard damit beauftragt hat, in der Halbleiterindustrie Partner für eine strategische Beteiligung an ihrer MRAM (Magnetic Random Access Memory) Produktionstechnologie auszumachen.

Der neue Partner soll die Kompetenz des Unternehmens vor allem im Vertrieb ergänzen und damit der weitgehend abgeschlossenen Entwicklung der neuen TMR (Tunnel-Magnetic-Resistance) Beschichtungsanlagen zur Herstellung von MRAM-Wafern und Thin Film Heads zum Marktdurchbruch verhelfen.

SINGULUS hat die MRAM-Entwicklung im Jahr 2002 auf der Basis seiner Technologiekompetenz im Bereich der optischen Speichermedien begonnen. Bei MRAM handelt es sich um einen neuartigen \"nichtflüchtigen\" Speicher, der im Gegensatz zur DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory)-Technologie die gespeicherte Information im spannungslosen Zustand nicht verliert. Gleichzeitig verbraucht ein MRAM-Chip weniger Energie als ein DRAM-Element.

Die Aktie von SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES schloss gestern bei 13,57 Euro (-2,09 Prozent).

Wertpapiere des Artikels:
SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES AG


Autor: SmartHouseMedia (© wallstreet:online AG / SmartHouse Media GmbH),08:34 19.01.2005

[netgoggel]

http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20050120_125058.html

MRAM unlikely to become universal memory, report

By Wolfgang Gruener, Senior Editor

January 20, 2005 - 12:50 EST

Chicago (IL) - Magneto-resistive random access memory (MRAM) is one of most advanced technologies that aims to replace Flash and RAM before the end of the decade. The memory may become commercially available as early as late this year, but analysts from NanoMarkets do not believe that the dream of a universal memory technology will become reality.

Concerns about the ability of Flash technology to further scale with business and application needs recently sparked discussions on likely successors. Several memory types are currently developed, such as polymer memory, FeRAM, nanocrystals, nanotube-based RAM or ovonics memory. Most activity originates from developers of MRAM, which already is available in working prototypes and could make its way into some consumer electronics by the end of this year.

A report released by market research firm NanoMarkets however suggests that the potential of MRAM could come closer to "the dream of universal memory than any other commercial product". The technology however was unlikely to be able to make this idea a complete reality, it said.

mram Key markets for MRAM will be cell phones with first products using the memory by the end of 2005, according to NanoMarkets. Mobile computing devices will follow in 2006; portable recording and playback devices with integrated MRAM are expected to appear in 2007. Home computing and consumer electronics as well as enterprise computing and telecommunications applications using MRAM could become available sometime in 2006, the research firm said.

The uncertainty that surrounds the technology is based on the fact MRAM may be much more difficult to commercialize than its backers, currently about 20 semiconductor firms, had expected. Challenges remain an expensive production of the memory and scaling hurdles. The first generation of MRAM is well below the capacity of today`s conventional RAM or Flash chips. MRAM is not expected to catch up with Flash before 2008. As it was the case with previous RAM, analysts also expect legal challenges with patent issues around the technology.

Advantages of MRAM include the speed of SRAM in combination with non-volatile characteristics of Flash. The memory also can withstand shock, magnetic fields and moderate amounts and posts low thermal and power consumption levels. Large firms companies working on MRAM include Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, IBM, Infineon, NEC/Toshiba, Philips, Renesas, Samsung and Sony
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MRAM schlummerte schon seit Jahren vor sich hin, jetzt geht es langsam in Richtung Massenmarkt. Es scheint so als ob 2005 das Jahr der MRAM-Euphorie sein wird - und wenn MRAM Massenmarkt relevant wird, so dürfte TIMARIS auch eher relevant werden(300mm^2+hohe Güte+Effizienz???)
Dazu kommt ein wahrscheinlich vorgezogener Eintritt von Blu Ray/HD DVD. Wenn jetzt noch deutliche Erfolge bei der Brillenbeschichtung&co absehbar sind, dann wäre das eine glückliche Verkettung (eher theoretisch) die gut zu Kursen um €30++ führen könnte.

[Proto2000]

"300mm^2+hohe Güte+Effizienz"

hohe Güte? wer kennt sich aus und kann wirklich einschätzen wie Singulus im Vergleich zu den Wettbewerbern aufgestellt ist. Wie gut ist die Timaris-Anlage?

[netgoggel]

sowas ähnliches habe ich in einer PDF bei Singulus gelesen, die find ich aber nimmer.
Hier ein Verkaufsprospekt:
http://www.singulus.de/pdf/timaris/timaris_01.pdf

[netgoggel]

Bedenken über MRAM:
No future for MRAM?
by Derek Sooman on Thu 20 Jan 2005, 08:03 PM
Magneto-resistive random access memory (MRAM) aims to replace Flash and RAM before the end of the decade – but will it? There are pluses and minuses in abundance for this technology.

What`s good about it? Well, MRAM can have the speed of SRAM, but with the non-volatile characteristics of Flash. I am sure that the benefits of having something like that as system RAM in your machine are obvious (no more hibernation to hard disk, for one) but there are other benefits, such as the ability of the memory to withstand shock, magnetic fields and moderate amounts and posts low thermal and power consumption levels. But will it become the universal standard for memory? Clever industry boffins say no.

Why? Well, the doubts about MRAM are several, but one of the main is that MRAM may be much more difficult to commercialize than the people who are behind it thought it would be. And then there are other problems, such as those of expensive production of the memory and scaling issues, and the fact that the first generation of MRAM is well below the capacity of today`s conventional RAM or Flash chips. All in all, the future of this technology is questionable. Yet again, we could see an excellent technology never reach consumers because of non-technical reasons, most of which have to do with profits. Kind of understandable, but a little sad.



ich glaub wir sind schon weiter, und gerade die Investitionsbereitschaft ist wiedergestiegen...

[netgoggel]

MRAM Market to Grow to $16.1 Billion by 2012, Says NanoMarkets
NanoMarkets - January 22, 2005

Magnetic computer memory (MRAM) looks like the universal memory solution of the future, according to a new report from NanoMarkets. The nanotechnology analysts predict that the MRAM market will grow to $2.1 billion by 2008, and $16.1 billion by 2012. Emerging MRAM markets include cell phones, PDAs, notebooks, PCs needing faster boot-up, RFID, factory automation, and aerospace and military applications.

MRAM combines the speed of SRAM with the non-volatility of Flash. It also offers a low-power memory solution, which eventually may match DRAM`s capacity and density.

NanoMarkets believes that emerging markets for MRAM include:

* Cell phones, PDAs and notebooks: MRAM is an attractive alternative to deploying both Flash and DRAM. It can save money and space. With software applications residing in memory, mobile devices will rapidly power up to exactly where they were when they were turned off. This will prove useful for someone who wants to use his notebook for a few minutes between flights. With its strong ties to Motorola, and early entry into the MRAM business, NanoMarkets believes Freescale will help give MRAM credibility in the cell phone sector.
* Computing and networking: MRAM will be used to avoid boot-up delays and to provide faster access to hard drives and non-volatile backup capabilities. At present, BIOS tends to use high cost, low density EEPROM or battery backed-up SRAM and volatile memory is used to alleviate I/O bottlenecks. In such applications, MRAM could prove in economically. Cypress -- another early MRAM supplier -- is already pushing its MRAM product as an SRAM replacement, while IBM views MRAM as a replacement for embedded DRAM. IBM is working jointly with Infineon in this space.
* Factory automation: microcontrollers and robots typically employ both RAM and PROMs/Flash. Lower costs will be achieved by replacing these two chips with one MRAM device.
* RFID: RFID tags need low-cost, non-volatile memory and at least one company (Micromem Technologies) is targeting this sector with MRAM products. A price point that makes MRAM economically viable for RFID applications will almost certainly push MRAM into other cost-sensitive areas.
* Military: MRAM is "rad hard" which makes it suitable for use in missiles and spacecraft and perhaps on battlefields where equipment could potentially be exposed to tactical nuclear weapons. Honeywell is already selling products for this sector.

About the market research report

In addition to analyzing the current and future opportunities for MRAM, NanoMarkets` new report, "Magnetic Memory: An Analysis and Forecast of the Market for MRAM", analyzes the strategies of 20 firms that are actively engaged in pursuing MRAM-related revenues. These include some of the giants of the electronics industry such as Hewlett-Packard, NEC, Philips and Toshiba, as well as smaller players such as NVE, Spintron and Trikon. The report also provides eight-year forecasts that break out the market by key applications segments.
NanoMarkets reports examine key areas of the emerging nanoelectronics market. The reports are available as a subscription service or may be purchased individually. Through the end of January the firm has announced a special pricing program. Follow link below for more info.

[netgoggel]

http://www.mram-info.com/articles/MRAM_Executive_summary_no_…

[netgoggel]

Cypress Samples 256Kbit MRAM

Online staff -- Electronic News, 1/28/2005

Silicon Magnetic Systems, the magnetic random access memory (MRAM)-dedicated subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor, has begun providing alpha samples of its 256Kbit devices to seven key customers, reported in the parent company’s financial results yesterday.

Two of the seven unnamed customers reported the MRAMs are fully functional in initial system tests, with the other five currently developing evaluation systems.

MRAM is a universal memory in applications that require nonvolatile storage, high performance and low power consumption for applications such as wireless communications, PDAs, handheld equipment, industrial controls, storage area networks, network area storage, servers and consumer electronic equipment.

Further, Silicon Magnetic Systems said MRAMs are ideal in applications currently using battery backed SRAM, EEPROM or flash memories, because they eliminate the battery and allow SRAM-like speed, power, ease of use and non-volatility.

[netgoggel]

Nano World: MRAM rising as nano-memory
By Charles Q. Choi
United Press International
Published January 28, 2005

NEW YORK -- In the next decade, the leading method of data storage could be nanotechnology-based magnetic RAM or MRAM, which is expected to grow to a market of $2.1 billion by 2008 and $16.1 billion by 2012.

"The most surprising thing to me is how soon this looks like it`s coming, and how many companies there actually are looking at it as a commercial prospect," Lawrence Gasman, principal analyst for NanoMarkets, an industry research firm in Sterling, Va., told UPI`s Nano World. "It will probably be overhyped like these kinds of things always are, but it looks like a nice little sector is emerging here."

Unlike all other existing computer memories, which are based on storing electrical charge, MRAM stores information using magnetic bits, each akin to a compass needle. A computer writes data into MRAM by flipping each bit`s magnetic polarity.

"Because these bits are tiny permanent magnets, this information remains when the electrical power is removed from the chip," explained Saied Tehrani, director of MRAM technology at Freescale in Austin, Texas, the semiconductor products sector of Motorola. On the other hand, dynamic and static RAM -- also known as DRAM and SRAM, the most common types of memory in use today -- are volatile and require a continuous supply of electricity.

Flash memory, which is most familiar to digital camera enthusiasts, is non-volatile like MRAM. "Flash stores information by trapping charge that has been transported across a physical barrier. This transporting of charge requires higher voltages and has a known limited lifetime due to wear-out of the barrier after as little as 100,000 write cycles," Tehrani told Nano World. The magnets in MRAM, on the other hand, can be switched indefinitely with no known wear-out.

"Also, because MRAM can be directly programmed in a few nanoseconds, it is extremely fast compared with Flash, which takes milliseconds to program and also requires a separate erase cycle," Tehrani said. In addition, while it can be as fast as SRAM, MRAM can in theory achieve higher density, since MRAM only has one transistor per cell while SRAM uses six to achieve its high speed. Moreover, unlike electrically based memory, MRAM is not sensitive to erasure from radiation, making it valuable for military and satellite applications.

"MRAM is a technology that uniquely combines the best attributes of other current memory technologies into one, low-cost solution," Tehrani said.

Nearly 20 firms are active with MRAM, with 2005 "the first year we`ll see some real revenues with MRAM," Gasman said, with Cypress Semiconductor in San Jose, Calif., expecting $2 million from the technology this year. IBM, Infineon, Freescale and Cypress also are pursuing early entry with MRAM products, while NEC, Toshiba, Samsung, Sony and Taiwan Semiconductor are looking at later entries and Honeywell is pursuing specialist applications. Also, Hewlett-Packard looks to license MRAM intellectual property, while Philips is supplying non-MRAM technology to MRAM suppliers.

In 2006, Gasman expects demand for MRAM to grow. Such chips could help notebook computers, PDAs and cell phones rapidly power up to the exact point they were when they were turned off. MRAM also could help microcontrollers and robots in factory automation, replacing both RAM and PROMs/Flash, and find its way into radio-frequency identification tags via Micromem in Toronto.

RFID tags allow companies to track inventory more quickly and precisely, helping to save an industry giant such as Wal-Mart $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion annually, according to AMR Research in Boston.

Difficulties remain on the road to MRAM, however. The first generation of MRAM chip, at 4 megabits or 8 megabits, is well below a current 1-gigabit Flash chip.

"It`s a very long way behind conventional RAM technologies," Gasman said. "Improving that doesn`t happen overnight, and it has a moving target to catch up with -- Flash is getting better."

This problem of scaling up MRAM is one of the reasons Intel is not pursuing the technology.

"The materials used for the magnetic memory effect themselves have certain scaling issues," Intel memory technology development group member Greg Atwood told Nano World. "Also, the power required to generate a magnetic field to write onto MRAM requires a pretty high current, perhaps milliamps, which is a very high current for such small devices. And the current you need doesn`t scale down as the size goes down."

Gasman disagreed. "Toshiba, IBM and NEC would not put a lot of money into this space without the belief they can upgrade the technology," he said, "and Intel`s never really made a commitment to MRAM."

Still, Gasman noted Micron Technology in Boise, Idaho, did invest in MRAM only to withdraw, instead pursuing a nanocrystalline version of Flash technology. He also noted that MRAM remains expensive.

"As far as I can determine, there`s nothing intrinsically expensive about it, though," he said. "This should change as the volume production ramps up. The other issue you hear is that you need to create very fine magnetic layers, and if you build them too thin you get lots of errors due to interference effects, and if you build them too thick it doesn`t work. So it`s a yield issue, but it`s the kind of thing that changes with experience."

Gasman said in the long-term, MRAM companies might also face legal challenges. NVE in Eden Prairie, Minn., which sells nanosensors and related devices, licensed its MRAM technology to three companies: Agilent, Motorola and Cypress.

"The interesting thing is Motorola-Freescale," he said. "NVE is now trying to renegotiate so their agreement applies with Freescale, a legal challenge in the making, and some figures with investment interest, such as banks, have made the point that Motorola has partnerships in MRAM, such as with Philips and Taiwan Semiconductor, and these partners might have to pay money to NVE. So that`s completely unclear."

The issue could end up in court, Gasman said. "The type of thing that drags on for a couple of years. The impact of that is not attractive. Still, most companies, such as IBM and Toshiba, have no connections with NVE, and will not be drawn into any lawsuit."

--

Nano World is a weekly series examining the exploding field of nanotechnology, by Charles Choi, who covers research and technology for UPI Science News.

[netgoggel]

Es verdichten sich die Anzeichen dass erste MRAM-Produkte am Markt entstehen.
Cypress hat wenn ich es richtig weiß bereits erste MRAM-Umsätze für das 1. Quartal 2005 eingeplant.

Cypress hat wohl zu Zeit??? noch nichts mit Singulus zu tun - aber das "lazard/MRAM"-Rauchzeichen hat vielleicht auch Cypress erreicht.

[netgoggel]

http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2005/02/14/da…
Cypress to sell MRAM subsidiary

Just as potential customers are finding Cypress Semiconductor Corp.`s new Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM) chips fully functional, the San Jose company says it`s going to sell the unit, Silicon Magnetic Systems, a subsidiary company founded to commercialize the invention.

"It is seemingly contradictory that we would sell the MRAM business at its moment of first success. The fact is that a series of events and discoveries has led to our conclusion that this move is best for Cypress`s shareholders," says T.J. Rodgers, chief executive officer of Cypress (NYSE: CY) of San Jose, in a written statement.

The bottom line is that the business would take a large amount of capital to reach full commercial production and then have a limited market, Cypress says.

"While a niche MRAM business could be a profitable addition to Cypress`s portfolio of products, we currently have more attractive places to invest than in the capital-intensive MRAM business," Mr. Rodgers says. "For example, our revenue from our SunPower solar cell operation this quarter is expected to be $10 million, with a growth rate far exceeding our best expectations for the MRAM business."

Mr. Rodgers adds, "This decision has been particularly hard for me, because I have been deeply involved with the team and technology since we started working on MRAMs. Without exception, this is the finest technical team that I have worked with in my career. They have managed to bring a working product to the marketplace in three years with a team of only 28 people, including administration, marketing and finance."

While Cypress says it has decided to sell the unit by the end of the quarter, no price or buyer has been announced.
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[derfla1949]

netgoggel,
bist Du eine Reinkarnation von dem derAllesFindet?

Die Meldung als solche liest sich allerdings alles andere als gut, sozusagen als ob MRAM angeboten würde wie Sauerbier. Hoffentlich drohen da keine krassen Sonderabschreibungen.
Andererseits - 2005 wird wohl eh schlecht, und nach der abstrusen Logik der Börse kann die Hoffnung auf ein besseres 2006 den Kurs um so mehr beflügeln, je schlechter 2005 gewesen sein wird.

[B38fk17]

Der o.g. Beitrag kürzt die Fakten etwas zu sehr ab. Die offizielle Pressemitteilung ist da schon etwas genauer. MRAM generell ist kein Nischenmarkt. Cypress hat auf die zu teuren T3-2MTJ-Zellen (anstatt 1T-1MTJ) gesetzt, und stellt nun fest, dass sich das nicht rechnet (SRAM mit Batteriepack ist da billiger). Zudem sind Speicherbausteine nicht unbedingt die Kernkompetenz von Cypress. Die Investitionen werden nur die Großen stemmen können, deren Kernkompetenz Speicherbausteine sind. Und MRAM wird kommen, da nichtflüchtiger Speicher zu DRAM-Kosten die Informationstechnik m.E. revolutionieren wird.

http://www.cypress.com/portal/server.pt?space=CommunityPage&…


Cypress to Sell MRAM Subsidiary
SAN JOSE, Calif., February 14, 2005 -- Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY) today announced its intention to divest Silicon Magnetic Systems (SMS), a subsidiary company founded to commercialize Magnetic Random Access Memories (MRAMs). Cypress CEO T.J. Rodgers said, "After a three-year effort, Cypress sampled fully functional MRAMs to seven key OEM customers in January. Three of those customers are still in the validation phase of their assessment and four of them have already confirmed with us that they have found the product fully functional, as we announced in our quarterly earnings conference call on January 27."
Rodgers continued, "It is seemingly contradictory that we would sell the MRAM business at its moment of first success. The fact is that a series of events and discoveries has led to our conclusion that this move is best for Cypress`s shareholders.
"The product Cypress has sampled is a 256-kbit MRAM that is pin-for-pin compatible with a Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) product Cypress sold by the tens of millions for over 15 years. We know that some of our 256-kbit SRAMs are purchased by companies that package them with batteries to provide a so-called battery-backup SRAM, which holds data during a power interruption. These battery-backup SRAMs, and related products with non-volatile SRAM properties, are used in equipment such as cellular basestations and mass-storage systems that must restart properly after a power interruption. The market for these non-volatile SRAMs is approximately $40 million per year. Our strategy was to commercialize our MRAM technology first in these niche, battery-backup MRAM markets, and then to grow by adding to our product portfolio."
Rodgers continued, "The second phase of our MRAM plan was to create a family of high-density MRAMs, ranging from four to 64 megabits in density. This segment of the MRAM market is much larger than the battery-backup SRAM market, partly because it offers the potential to take market share from the multibillion-dollar standard SRAM market, if the MRAM bit cost can be reduced to parity with the SRAM bit cost. Our battery-backup MRAM cell utilizes three transistors and two magnetic tunnel junctions (3T-2MTJ) per bit. In higher-density MRAMs, economic viability can be achieved only by switching to the simpler and denser 1T-1MTJ cell. The 1T-1MTJ cell is more difficult to design and manufacture than the 3T-2MTJ cell, which was invented at Cypress to solve the design and manufacturing problems that have prevented the commercialization of MRAM, despite over a decade of work by some of the world`s most prominent semiconductor companies.
"Based on our latest calculations at Cypress, we no longer believe that the 1T-1MTJ MRAM technology will be able to successfully attack the SRAM market, leaving MRAM as a niche technology with higher bit pricing than that of SRAM. While a niche MRAM business could be a profitable addition to Cypress`s portfolio of products, we currently have more attractive places to invest than in the capital-intensive MRAM business. For example, our revenue from our SunPower solar cell operation this quarter is expected to be $10 million, with a growth rate far exceeding our best expectations for the MRAM business."
Rodgers continued, "This decision has been particularly hard for me, because I have been deeply involved with the team and technology since we started working on MRAMs. Without exception, this is the finest technical team that I have worked with in my career. They have managed to bring a working product to the marketplace in three years with a team of only 28 people, including administration, marketing and finance."
Rodgers concluded, "We therefore have made the tough choice to sell our SMS subsidiary and to remove it from Cypress`s books by the end of the
About Cypress
Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY) provides high-performance solutions for personal, network access, enterprise, metro switch and core communications system applications. Leveraging its process and system-level expertise, Cypress makes industry-leading physical layer devices, framers and network search engines, along with a broad portfolio of high-bandwidth memories, USB devices, timing technology solutions and reconfigurable mixed-signal arrays. More information about Cypress is accessible online at www.cypress.com. first quarter."