Features - Storage Innovations:

CYPRESS INTRODUCES HIGHEST-PERFORMANCE DUAL-PORT RAM

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation announced availability of the world's highest-density and highest-performance dual-port (DP) random access memory (RAM). The FLEx72 18 Mbit DP RAM is a synchronous, pipelined dual-port memory that provides two times the density of comparable devices in the market today.

In addition, the FLEx72 DP RAM is the first dual-port memory to provide 72-bit wide ports enabling up to 19.2 Gbps of bandwidth. With this unprecedented combination of performance and storage capability, Cypress's FLEx72 DP RAM is the optimal solution for the increasing line rates and processing speeds required by next-generation communication systems (wireless basestations, storage area network sub-systems) and video and image processing systems.

As a true dual-port memory, the FLEx72 DP RAM provides simultaneous access to any location in the memory -- either port can write and read data into and out of any memory location at the same time. This feature, combined with the ability to run both ports in two independent clock domains, enables the buffering of large packets of data between two processing elements in a system. It also eliminates bus contention issues by enabling system architects to create a distributed bus architecture. By providing the market's first product of its kind, Cypress has set the industry pinout for 18 Mbit x72 dual-port memories.

"Over the last decade Cypress has demonstrated its leadership in the high-performance specialty-memory market by designing innovative dual-port products," said Christopher Norris, vice president of Cypress's Data Communications Division. "Cypress's 18 Mbit dual-port RAM joins our elite portfolio of multi-ported memories providing flexibility and enabling quicker time-to-market for designers of systems employing DSPs, FPGAs and ASICs."

Multiport memories are used in a wide variety of applications, including the wireless, wireline and storage area networking segments on which Cypress is specifically focused. In wireless infrastructure applications, multiport memories are used to store and manipulate packet data between the FPGA, ASIC, and/or DSP devices operating in different clock domains on the baseband processing card. Wide area and storage networks employing high-performance communications protocols (such as OC-48, Gigabit Ethernet, or Fibre Channel) also use high-density multiported memories to buffer data packets between the backplane interconnect and the data port to avoid loss of data and maintain efficient flow control. The size of the buffer is driven by the difference between the input and output clocking speeds, the buffering time required by the system, and the bus width. These requirements dictate the need for a high-density multi-port memory in communication systems as system speeds continue to increase.

"Cypress continues to deliver the industry's highest performance specialty memories for communications products offering a broad spectrum of choices to our customers," said Brent Roberts, marketing manager for Cypress's Specialty Memories. "The FLEx72 dual-port bolsters our industry-leading portfolio, which already includes QDR-II memories for packet buffering, the Ayama Network Search Engines for packet forwarding and classification, and FLEx36 dual-port memories for inter-processing buffering and queuing."