Numonyx Debuts Omneo Phase Change Memory: Wicked Fast, Wicked Small

Memory can be a complicated matter. We've got DIMMs, SODIMMs, DRAM, NAND, Flash, Error Correcting RAM, RDRAM, and the list goes on. Numonyx has been a major memory player for awhile now, and just a few months after being acquired by Micron, the company is now introducing a set of products based on the new class of memory technology called phase change memory (PCM).


These new devices deliver higher performance, endurance and simplicity for wired and wireless communications, consumer electronics, PCs, and other embedded application. We're told that the new embedded memory products blend many attributes associated with flash memory, as well as RAM and EEPROM, while delivering new capabilities in a single device. If you're wondering how this will help you, the new Omneo PCM promises up to 300 times faster write speeds and ten times more write endurance than today’s flash memory. Yeah, that'll help you notice a boost in performance.

There's no specific mention of when this will become commercially available (though it's available to OEMs now), but brief descriptions of the new line are listed below.

Numonyx® Omneo™ P5Q PCM

Omneo P5Q PCM is a 90nm device delivering high-speed SPI-compatibility. The Omneo P5Q PCM combines serial NOR flash memory and EEPROM technology benefits into one by delivering byte alterability, faster programming times and greater endurance.

Byte alterability provides for easier data manipulation and software simplification by eliminating the need for erasing large blocks of data. The over-write or “no-erase” function enables engineers and designers to simplify software designs and accelerate system performance, improving the time it takes to program a device by up to 300 times. The new Omneo P5Q product is able to write up to ten times more data than flash memory by delivering one million write cycles.

Numonyx® Omneo™ P8P PCM

The Numonyx P8P PCM is the second release of the 90nm 128Mb parallel product by Numonyx. The first release was introduced in December 2008. The first version supported 100,000 write cycles. The new release has been improved to achieve one million write cycles.