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AMD eyes Z-RAM for dense caches

Tom Krazit Former Staff writer, CNET News
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Google, as the most prominent company on the Internet defends its search juggernaut while expanding into nearly anything it thinks possible. He has previously written about Apple, the traditional PC industry, and chip companies. E-mail Tom.
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Tom Krazit

AMD plans to announce on Monday that it has licensed Innovative Silicon's Z-RAM technology for possible use in future on-chip memory caches.

Cache memory is a relatively low-power way of improving processor performance. Frequently used data is stored in cache memory banks on the chip close to the CPU, where it can be accessed much more quickly than data stored outside the chip in the main memory.

Z-RAM will allow chipmakers to build cache memory banks that are up to five times as dense as the static memory currently used in most varieties of cache memory, or up to twice as dense as regular DRAM chips, according to Innovative Silicon.

AMD plans to evaluate Z-RAM for use on future processors, a company representative said.