Why Micron Is Suddenly Ditching 4F² DRAM As Rivals Double Down
DRAM is fundamentally different from logic. Logic cells are like those in your processor, and in that form, they're all the same sort of thing: switching transistors. DRAM is different because each cell is made up of a transistor and a capacitor, and that complicates scaling. For a long time now, we've been making those cells with a geometry known as "6F²", and the 'holy grail' was the ultimate move to 4F², offering a theoretical 33% density improvement. Now, Micron says that despite putting "over two decades" of research into the idea, it's throwing in the towel and sticking to 6F² for the foreseeable future.
This might seem absurd, but you have to understand that these are cell geometries, not process nodes. In essence, these terms describe the shape and layout of the DRAM cell, not its physical size directly; that is determined by the combination of layout and...
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