A couple of weeks ago, Everspin Technologies announced the pilot production of its 28nm 1-Gigabit(Gb) STT-MRAM.
MRAM is not new but started way back in 2006 by Freescale who marketed the first 4Mbit MRAM chip.
Freescale's MRAM division was later spun-off to form a new company named Everspin.
MRAMs are even currently used in some RAID controllers from several major vendors.
MRAM stands for Magnetoresistive random-access memory - a technology that uses the electron spin to store information.
Standard MRAM were called Toggle-MRAM, typically a single transistor, one MTJ cell (magnetic tunnel junction) device with data retention of over 20 years.
The STT-MRAM (Spin-Transfer Torque) is a variant that has the advantage of achieving higher densities at lower cost. In a STT device the spin of the electrons is flipped using a spin-polarized current.
Many other companies are also developing STT-MRAM tchnologies. Last February, Intel also announced its 22nm Fin-FET MRAM is production ready. The prototypes were 7Mb perpendicular STT-MRAM.
Also IBM & Samsung are in the development stages.
Researchers from Japan's Tohoku University recently developed a 128 Mb STT-MRAM device that's supposed to be the world's fastest.
Probably with costs going down MRAM might be the most likely choice of post-flash solid state storage.
MRAM is not new but started way back in 2006 by Freescale who marketed the first 4Mbit MRAM chip.
Freescale's MRAM division was later spun-off to form a new company named Everspin.
MRAMs are even currently used in some RAID controllers from several major vendors.
MRAM stands for Magnetoresistive random-access memory - a technology that uses the electron spin to store information.
Standard MRAM were called Toggle-MRAM, typically a single transistor, one MTJ cell (magnetic tunnel junction) device with data retention of over 20 years.
The STT-MRAM (Spin-Transfer Torque) is a variant that has the advantage of achieving higher densities at lower cost. In a STT device the spin of the electrons is flipped using a spin-polarized current.
Many other companies are also developing STT-MRAM tchnologies. Last February, Intel also announced its 22nm Fin-FET MRAM is production ready. The prototypes were 7Mb perpendicular STT-MRAM.
Also IBM & Samsung are in the development stages.
Researchers from Japan's Tohoku University recently developed a 128 Mb STT-MRAM device that's supposed to be the world's fastest.
Probably with costs going down MRAM might be the most likely choice of post-flash solid state storage.
