Memoir Systems unveils first commercial product—Renaissance 2X embedded memory IP

SANTA CLARA, USA: Memoir Systems Inc. has announced the availability of its first commercial product family: Renaissance 2X.

Based upon the company’s award-winning Algorithmic Memory technology which creates new multiport embedded memories by combining algorithms with standard 1-port SRAM, Renaissance 2X brings a revolutionary approach to embedded memory development across the semiconductor industry. Renaissance 2X offers four separate memory generators: a 2 port (1R1W), a dual port (2RW), and specialty memories for 2Ror1W and 1RW1W.

Renaissance 2X eliminates the need to build multiple variants of dual-port and 2-port physical compilers based on the conventional 8-transistor memory bit cells for new process nodes. As a result, customers benefit from dramatically improved time-to-market and time-for-adoption of new process nodes, reduced development cost and maintenance effort, and lowered risk to build embedded multi-port memories. Furthermore, Renaissance 2X offers up to 30 percent increased clock speeds and up to 50 percent area and power savings over comparable industry-standard physical memory compilers.

Adam Kablanian, CEO of Memoir Systems noted, “Memoir’s overall vision with our Renaissance product family is to bring new life and an innovative approach to embedded memory design and development across the industry.”

Da Chuang, co-founder and COO said, “The technology platform that we have developed enables us not only to deliver revolutionary new products to memory architects and developers, but also to enable the semiconductor industry as a whole to change how it thinks about and develops embedded memory.”

Kablanian added: “A key part of our strategy is to work with foundries, IDMs (Integrated Device Manufacturers), library vendors, and third-party IP suppliers to make our technology available such that it sets a new standard on how memory products are developed. For far too long the memory industry has been weighed down with technology that has not kept pace with the evolution that has taken place in the SoC marketplace. Our goal with the Renaissance product platform is to turn the tide so that embedded memory development advances with the rest of the SoC industry and the continually changing semiconductor ecosystem.”

Perhaps, the most fundamental change Renaissance 2X brings is that it eliminates the need for specialized 8-transistor bit cell development. While single-port memories use 6-transistor bit cells, traditional dual-port and 2-port memories require specialized 8-transistor bit cells. This requires extra effort to develop an additional set of physical compilers, and also necessitates extensive silicon validation and characterization.

It also means maintaining several versions of these compilers for high density and high speed versions, and for several process variants. This results in development delays that affect process readiness because the dual-port and 2-port physical compilers can typically only be developed after the process becomes stable. This delays chip design starts on a new process node.

In contrast, Renaissance 2X creates dual-port and 2-port memories by building on 1-port SRAM, thus obviating the need for 8-transistor dual-port and 2-port bit cells and avoiding the associated costs, risks and delays. Furthermore, since the new memories are constructed from IP which has been exhaustively formally verified, no further silicon verification is required.

With Renaissance 2X, Memoir Systems offers a compelling product that brings value to the entire semiconductor industry. Its benefits extend to ASIC providers, foundries, IDMs, and fabless semiconductor companies.