Spansion sees 50-fold better performance with novel use of memory in servers
Spansion is announcing today that its EcoRAM flash memory can speed up the performance of some server applications by 50 to 100 times compared to traditional memory chips. It will be interesting to see if this innovation can help pull Spansion out of bankruptcy proceedings.
EcoRAM, developed by startup Virident and built by Spansion, uses flash memory chips to replace dynamic random access memory and hard disks in data center servers. Server vendors have put EcoRAM… Continue Reading
Worldwide chip sales fall 28.6 percent, Spansion files for bankruptcy
Worldwide chip sales fell 28.6 percent in January compared to a year ago, and flash memory chip maker Spansion has filed for bankruptcy protection. Those are just a couple of headlines that show just how grim the economic meltdown has become for the semiconductor industry.
The Semiconductor Industry Assocation has said that chip sales are at $15.3 billion, down from $21.5 billion a year ago. And the January figure was down 11.9 percent from December’s sales… Continue Reading
Flash memory chip makers grab their share of bad news
The bad times are taking a toll among the makers of flash memory chips. SanDisk reported today that it lost a whopping $1.86 billion in the fourth quarter, while Spansion said that its chief executive, Bertrand Cambou, is resigning today.
Milpitas, Calif.-based SanDisk said revenue for the quarter was $863.9 million, down from $1.25 billion a year ago. The loss of $8.25 a share included a $1.91 billion one-time charge. That includes $1.02 billion in a… Continue Reading
Spansion and Virident reveal designs that dramatically boost memory in servers
The Internet has fueled the rise of corporate data centers, which will be full of something like 6.8 million computer servers by the year 2010. Each data center consumes the energy of about 25,000 homes.
That’s why the new EcoRAM computer architecture described today by flash memory chip maker Spansion and Silicon Valley firm Virident Systems is important. It is one of the keys to making servers and the data centers that house them more energy… Continue Reading
Spansion and Virident tout low-powered EcoRAM for data centers
Data centers suck up a lot of electricity. That’s a point that has been well made in the past few years, with a host of startups offering everything from virtualization to water cooling to help tackle heat issues and high electricity usage. Now Flash memory maker Spansion (NASDAQ: SPSN) and Virident, Bay Area startup, are saying they have the next big solution.
That solution is a new type of memory to replace DRAM, a dense form… Continue Reading