Give OTP a chance for low-power, on-chip storage

The on-chip memories that get most of the attention are read/write memories such as SRAM, DRAM, Flash, and MRAM (which I just covered in my previous blog entry). However, there’s a place for OTP (one-time programmable) memory on chip, so the technology bears some thought. I discussed OTP at last week’s GSA Emerging Opportunities Expo and Conference in Santa Clara, California with Jim Lipman of Sidense, a vendor that offers hard IP for on-chip OTP memory. Although designers have an obvious bias towards read/write technologies for on-chip memory, OTP memory can be quite useful for storing infrequently programmed or reprogrammed data such as calibration and trim settings, serial numbers, configurations, boot code, and security keys. This last application is particularly interesting.

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