AMD may put 5MB of cache into CPUs

According to EE Times, AMD has licensed Z-RAM technology from a start up company. This technology can increase density of cache memory by five times. In other words, using the same die area, an Opteron can have 5MB of cache. Z-RAM only works on SOI, a process technology that INTEL has not yet mastered, INTEL is only doing Strained Silicon. All AMD CPUs are made on complex DSLSSOI (Dual Stress Linear Strained Silicon On Insulator) process to achieve higher performance and lower power consumption.

According to the startup which developed the Z-Ram technique: "Innovative Silicon has developed a true capacitor-less, single transistor DRAM - named Z-RAM for Zero Capacitor DRAM – by harnessing the floating body effect of Silicon on Insulator (SOI) devices. This technology is capable of achieving twice the memory density of existing embedded DRAM technology and five times that of SRAM yet requires no special materials or extra mask/process steps. "