Invensas Creates Special Ultrabook Memory

Laptop components are fairly standard nowadays, but there come times when IT companies have to start thinking outside the box in order to make a new idea feasible.

As far as game changing devices go, ultrabooks are a fairly mild example, but they still forced, and are forcing, component makers to make their devices thinner and lighter, without cost impact if possible.

Invensas Corporation is one of the IT companies trying to help ultrabooks along.

What it invented is an alternative to the small outline dual in-line memory module (SODIMM) that notebooks, ultrabooks included, utilize.

Its invention is called DIMM-IN-A-PACKAGE multi-die face-down (xFD) technology.

Essentially, it is a miniature, soldered-down, ball grid array (BGA) package that has the same capacity and performance as a SODIMM.

“Right now, portable electronics roadmaps demand not just evolutionary products to reduce size and increase performance, but revolutionary solutions that provide a radical simplification of the product design and the supply chain,” said Simon McElrea, president of Invensas. 

“The memory challenge goes well beyond providing the required capacity. It’s about creating solutions that significantly reduce motherboard size and complexity, while increasing battery size (and hence life), and then dealing with all the heat. DIMM-IN-A-PACKAGE addresses all these issues simultaneously.”

The number of DRAM chips may vary according to needs, but to put things in perspective, a DIMM-IN-A-PACKAGE device with a Quad Face Down (QFDTM) package (the most common) can fill in for a single-sided, 16 x 16 x 1.0mm SODIMM.

That makes it suited not just for ultrabooks, but tablets as well.

There don't seem to be any contracts yet for the inclusion of the DIMM-IN-A-PACKAGE in ultrabooks or anything else, but Invensas has barely reached the point where it can demonstrate it, so that is understandable. The Intel Developer Forum (April 11-12, 2012) is when the technology will be showcased for the first time.

Posted in: Hardware, Preview