Japanese precision bearings maker Minebea Co’s Chatsworth, California-based NMB Technologies Inc affiliate claims that the 40nS access time of its new AAA4M200 family of 4M-bit dynamic RAMs is the world’s fastest for a 4M part. The design supports direct zero-wait-state access with microprocessors clocked at up to 25MHz. The line comes in versions with 40nS, 45nS, 50nS, 60nS and 80nS and read-write cycle times as fast as 80nS. They also have an optional battery back-up mode for use in notebook computers. Enhanced page mode operation is standard and speeds read, write or read-write operations by taking advantage of column addressing within a previously accessed row. An optional battery back-up enables the chips to use less power than standard dynamics. Operating voltages range from 4.5V to 5.5V and power consumption on the 40nS part is 650mW with 5.5V. In battery back-up mode, the device is optionally self-refreshing and dissipates 1.5mW at 5V. They are offered in 1M-bit by 4 and 4M-bit by 1 versions, with pricing starting at $20 for quantities of 10,000 at 40nS. The 80nS is from $16 for 10,000-up. Production quantities of the 1m by 4 are available now, with the 4M by 1 version following on next month.
