February 12, 2001–Boise, Idaho–Micron Technology, Inc. today introduced the first devices in its new BAT-RAM family of low-power synchronous DRAMS (SRAM). The company currently is sampling 2.5- and 3.3-V 2 Meg x 32 64Mb BAT-RAM devices, and plans to introduce next-generation devices this year.

The BAT-RAMs are designed to consume less power than standard SDRAMs, and extend the battery life in many mobile and wireless applications. “BAT-RAM provides all of the advantages of the DRAM commodity model–wider availability, lower cost, faster design improvements, and multiple densities in a smaller standard package–and is designed to consume less power,” says Phil Martin, Micron’s DRAM Market Development manager. “SDRAM is specifically designed for mobile and wireless applications, so it consistently provides the smaller form factor, lower power specs, and features these products need.”

Micron’s BAT-RAM devices include a new feature, temperature-compensated self-refresh. When enabled and programmed by the system, this feature allows the part to adjust refresh rate and power consumption based on temperature. At normal temperatures, this feature allows the devices to consume even less power.