Freescale Semiconductor is betting big-time on MRAM, or Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory. MRAM has some very promising properties; in particular, it will permanently place pieces of data in their bit-position–either on or off–for storage even when the power is off. It's faster than all other forms of non-volatile memory, rivaling even SRAM and its variants, which are used for computer memory.
The first Freescale chips are 4 MB chips (512 KB of real data) operating at 3.3 volts. They have 35 ns access times for read/write operations, and store data permanently once written to. The chips sell for US$25 in 1,000-unit quantities and will likely become very popular for companies that want to use a single-source for its memory and permanent storage.
MRAM represents a potential dream come true. The state of a machine could be stored exactly where it was when it was powered down, with only a minimal amount of time required to boot the machine back up when turned back on. No hard disk, no separate memory, just a single-source for all of your data and memory needs. I can even envision a portable device–about the size of a PDA–that holds the MRAM-based storage and processor abilities and simply plugs into a type of kiosk for use at home, in the office, or on the go at pay-for-service facilities. You'll never have to worry about any of your data being corrupted, because all permanent and temporary storage is straight in the portable device. The kiosk is used only for keyboard/mouse input, Internet access, and video/printing abilities.
These are very exciting times for technologies such as this. However, I can also make the argument that we're deep enough into the technology king-pins that we'll be seeing politics play as much of a roll–if not more–than anything else on future products such as these.
Read more at Red Herring.
USER COMMENTS 16 comment(s)
|Follow The Money (10:13am EST Mon Jul 10 2006)
Before this ends up in consumer grade stuff, that is going to have to drop.
|Geek.com Editor error (11:43am EST Mon Jul 10 2006)
They are 4 Megabit chips (512 KB), making them $50/MB.
– by RickGeek
|Agreed. (11:46am EST Mon Jul 10 2006)
When we are talking about 1-2GB for $100 or so, using this for RAM becomes somewhat feasible, assuming other memory technologies do not perform far better by the time this reaches such a price point. As for using this as a storage device… that might work if we saw 500GB for less than $200 or so. (Assuming that will be minimal HDD size by the time this might reach a point where the price per GB is low enough to make it worthwhile.) Therefore, I doubt this technology will be very widespread in the near future. After they manage to improve the latency, using this for RAM might work. Once the price per MB, and eventually per GB comes down substantially… mass storage might be a possibility for consumers.
It may be useful for cell phones, PDAs, and other devices which do not need large capacity storage as yet. I will be watching to see where Freescale is able to take this particular solution. – by MaximumCat
|Something to ponder (12:59pm EST Mon Jul 10 2006)
You know how I know this will not make it into full production?
We're talking about it on here. – by X-plattform
|Hey Rick (1:02pm EST Mon Jul 10 2006)
“The first Freescale chips are 4 MB chips (512 KB of real data)”
should be changed to:
The first Freescale chips are 4 Mb chips (512 KB of real data)
just being technical, I hate it when B is used where a b is meant. Its misleading. – by ggm
|Interesting (1:19pm EST Mon Jul 10 2006)
[ggm – thanks for the typo/check.]
I do wonder whether this thing might have its best utilization married to traditional NAND flash. I mean, the #1 'failure mode' of FLASH as a pretty high speed random access non-volatile memory device is the degradation to cells that gradually makes the units unworkable. Unworkable because only 1% or so of all the 'sectors' are repeatedly rewritten, degrading them.
I should think that MRAM, coupled with conventional flash could be integrated on PCBs about the size of a 2.25 inch laptop or 3.5 inch desktop hard drive. With dual sided … what, maybe 40 GB a platter? (Is it fair to use the word 'platter' in this context?) The MRAM would figure in about 16 MB or so to contain the filesystem, file allocation tables and other high write data block ares.
Immediate customer would be the military. They just hate 'battery backup' memory devices. Another might be the laptop market, since really most of the performance loss comes from the pathetic hard drives in portable devices. Might find a market for 'ultra durability' FLASH chips for digital cameras. Maybe not.
But as others have posted, they really need to at least show that sub-gigabit densities are realistically achievable. That's their #1 problem, actually. So, the question is, is the limitation because FreeScale is using some third-world fourth-hand 350 nanometer litho, or is it due to the paramagnetic limit of the overlying ferromagnetic material, and needing to prevent bit leaks between adjacent cells?
Inquiring minds need to know. Even if they are goats.
– by GoatGuy
|Battery backed up RAM (1:23pm EST Mon Jul 10 2006)
For now, these chips replace battery backed up RAM devices. They are just as fast and cheaper and longer lasting.
They say that there is no wearout of the non-volatile memory. I wonder if we ran a full-speed read/write of one memory address. That would create 10 million reads/writes in one second. Suppose we did this for an hour. That is 34 billion reads/writes. How about for a week, or for a month.
Somehow, I have my doubts. We'll see.
Long term, if this can scale, it could replace Flash.
But I don't see it replacing DRAM unless they really have solved the wearout problem. – by chip vision
|ggm (1:32pm EST Mon Jul 10 2006)
It was submitted that way, but the Geek.com editors changed it to “MB”.
|$50/MB (4:08pm EST Mon Jul 10 2006)
$9,000,000 to replace my hard drive? Not anytime soon.
– by Nobody Special
|this stuff cost 5x -10x the same ammount of flash (5:38pm EST Mon Jul 10 2006)
do you really think it's going to replace flash anytime soon? – by cynic
|Bubble memory? (6:46pm EST Mon Jul 10 2006)
Isn't this just evolved from bubble memory developed by IBM back in the late 70's and traded to Intel during the 8086 & 8088 negotiations? – by anqe
|Cage match! MRAM vs. NRAM (7:29pm EST Mon Jul 10 2006)
Who will be the undisputed champ and market leader by 2010?
My money's on NRAM…any takers?
– by Technocrat
|Jokes on geeks.. (10:24pm EST Mon Jul 10 2006)
MRM.. at that cost.. draw the curve and figure when the cost / bit become competitive that the wear out of Flash is taken over by MRM..
ALso they don't scale so nicely either
Another stupid post of FUD. – by A geek
|A trekkie.. (10:25pm EST Mon Jul 10 2006)
I guess you can't be a AMDie so revert back to being a trekkie.. – by Not a geek
|MRAM advantages (8:16am EST Tue Jul 11 2006)
No need for separate main-memory and permanent storage. A single-source will serve for both. This will not only allow instant-on computers, but also “saved state instant on” computers, where the last thing that was in memory and being worked on when the machine/device was shut down is literally still there in memory when the machine boots back up.
– by RickGeek
|For Now (1:14pm EST Tue Jul 11 2006)
It will be useful in devices where shock and vibration are an issue,
writing is frequent (data looger) and storage requirements arent to large.
Something like the diagnostic store in a car computer or an industrial loop controller would be a good match.