Samsung mass producing MCP for 3G phones
February 22, 2005
Samsung Electronics announced that it is mass producing the world's largest-capacity multi-chip package (MCP). The new 2.5Gb MCP will enable multimedia-intensive mobile phones, especially 3G phones, to have memory levels that, for the first time, are equivalent to that of a personal computer's main memory: 320MBytes.
As mobile phones become slimmer and lighter, their increasing functionality continues to become more sophisticated and diverse. Today's handset designs must be able to support multimedia, including digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB). This requires higher capacity memory, particularly that afforded by multiple chip package designs.
Samsung's new 2.5Gb MCP consists of four dies -- a stack of two 1Gb NAND flash memory chips and two 256Mb Mobile DRAMs. The new MCP operates on only 1.8 volts and is capable of storing up to four hours of high-quality (QVGA) video data. Its capacity of 2.5Gb far exceeds the current 1.5Gb capacity level.
Samsung's MCPs can be configured in many different ways to accommodate a wide variety of specific applications. This multi-function device is helping mobile phone makers to utilize the limited space inside their products much more efficiently.
Complimenting its recently announced development of the industry's first eight-chip MCP, Samsung's new 2.5Gb MCP also is expected to accelerate the introduction of smaller, more versatile 3G mobile phones.
The market research firm iSuppli predicts that the market for 3G mobile phones will grow an average of 78% a year through 2008, when 240 million units will be sold worldwide.
Samsung is the only company producing NAND flash memory, Mobile DRAM, NOR flash memory and UtRAM at the same time -- all of the types of memory that can be used in the design of multi-chip packages today.
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