South Korea - Samsung Electronics announced that its embedded memory, OneDRAM™ is being used in the new Samsung SGH-L870 handset, which was launched in Europe last month. The 512 megabit (Mb) OneDRAM will be mass produced for multiple communication carriers in several other smart phones worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2008. Samsung has also begun sampling its one gigabit (Gb) OneDRAM to major handset manufacturers this month.

Samsung’s OneDRAM enables a ten-fold increase in the data processing speeds between the two processors in mobile handsets: a communication processor and an application processor. The OneDRAM interface, which complies with the JEDEC low-power, double-data-rate (LPDDR) memory standard, channels data between the processors through a single chip, eliminating the need for DRAM and SRAM chips as buffer memory.

“Thanks to Samsung’s OneDRAM, we were able to come up with faster and more efficient multimedia features for SGH-L870,” said ES Hwang, vice president, Handset R&D team, Samsung Electronics. “The Samsung L870 is the best solution for consumers who want to have business-like efficiency combined with exciting multimedia features for personal use.”

The performance benefits of specifying OneDRAM will be particularly evident with mobile phones in high-speed network environments, as well as for the transmission of 3D graphics, high-definition video and high-pixel imaging in digital applications that require large volumes of data to be processed at ultra-high speeds.

“In order to stay competitive, handset OEMs are requiring higher performance to support a larger array of services and functions at cost-effective prices,” said Sei-Jin Kim, vice president, Memory division, Samsung Electronics. “Samsung’s embedded memory solutions, such as our new OneDRAM, have been welcomed by leading application designers around the world for their performance enhancements, cost efficiency and timely technical support.”

OneDRAM supports the high-performance requirements of a wide range of telecommunications services. High-speed, downlink packet access (HSDPA) handsets, which have data transmission speeds of 7.2 megabits per second (Mbps) today and are designed for speeds up to 14.4Mbps, are expected to see a seven-fold increase to 100Mbps when 3G LTE (long term evolution) wireless communication services are introduced.

Samsung’s 133MHz 512Mb OneDRAM receives data from the modem processor at a 533MB/s transfer rate and forwards it to the application processor at 1.06GB/s, providing an overall system performance level more than ten times faster than that of conventional data transfers. The 1Gb OneDRAM is designed on a 166MHz scale for even faster performance.

Along with its faster data processing speeds between processors, OneDRAM reduces the overall cost for handset designing, the amount of power consumed and the time that it takes to bring a handset to market.

The smaller number of chips in Samsung’s OneDRAM also allows for the use of a printed circuit board only two-thirds the size of those used in conventional handsets.