First Commercial MRAM

Micrograph of the MR2A16A MRAM device

Freescale Semiconductor, which was spun-off from Motorola in 2004, has produced the first commercial non-volatile RAM product that can compete with normal RAM for speed and endurance but maintain its memory when the power is switched off. Austin, TX based Freescale announced the first commercial Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM) device is now in volume production.

Potentially, MRAM could make all other forms of memory and storage obsolete, including normal RAM, Flash and magnetic storage.MRAM uses ferromagnetic material to store data and therefore doesn't rely on power like standard RAM to keep data stored. It consists of arrays of magnetic memory cells in which the information is stored as the magnetization direction of tiny ferromagnetic elements. It has the speed of ordinary volatile RAM without the need for power.

Unlike slower Flash RAM, which also doesn't need power to maintain storage, MRAM can be reliably written to, erased and overwritten almost indefinitively.According to Freescale, its 4 Mbit MRAM product is a fast, non-volatile memory with unlimited endurance. Freescale's successful commercialization of MRAM technology could hasten new classes of electronic products offering dramatic advances in size, cost, power consumption and system performance. Companies like Toshiba, NEC and IBM have announced continued research and breakthroughs in MRAM technology, but Freescale is the first to announce commercial availability of the product.

Freescale's first commercial MRAM product, called the MR2A16A, has a variety of applications. Sometimes referred to as "universal" memory, MRAM could displace a number of chips found in every electronic device, from PCs, cell phones, music players and cameras to the computing components of kitchen appliances, cars and airplanes. According to Freescale, the product is engineered to be a replacement for battery-backed SRAM units. It also could be used in cache buffers, configuration storage memories and other applications that require the speed, endurance and non-volatility of MRAM.