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NEC Develops World's Fastest MRAM
Gary writes to tell us that NEC has developed a new SRAM compatible MRAM. The new memory module is capable of speeds up to 250MHz, the world's fastest to date. "MRAM are expected to generate new value and applications for future electronic devices thanks to their nonvolatility, unlimited write endurance, high speed operation, and ability to cut memory power dissipation in half. For example, these features could enable instant start up of PCs and prevent drive recorders from losing data after a sudden break in power in the future. As substitutes for system LSI-embedded SRAM, MRAM can provide even more value as they are expected to enable extremely low power dissipation of system LSIs because they can sleep when they are not in use and wake up instantly."
MRAM are expected to generate new value and applications for future electronic devices thanks to their nonvolatility
That is, assuming they're not manufactured by Sony.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
For small sizes (32KiB), MRAM already has a wide use in Game Boy Advance cartridges as a replacement for battery backed RAM.
"because they can sleep when they are not in use and wake up instantly."
Reminds me of my cat.
I was unfamiliar with it, so I looked it up:
Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory - two magnetic plates separated by an insulator. One plate has is a permanent magnet, the other holds the temporary charge.
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
I always wondered why more people didn't use battery-backed RAM with some slower, more persistent storage to dump it to when you lose power.
So really, the question is, which is cheaper: a gig of MRAM, or a gig of battery-backed RAM with a gig of flash or hard disk to dump to?
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
I have some MRAM samples waiting to be tested in my drawer (4Mb chips from Freescale). They look good as replacement for flash chips rather that SRAM, because of better reliability and lower power consumption, however the technology is quite young and hasn't reached yet the packing density of flash, or the speed of SRAM. Lots of potential though.
I hadn't known there were so many idiots in the world until I started using the Internet -Stanislaw Lem
On a related note, non-volatile system memory will completely change the game for forensics experts. Right now, when they come and grab your computers, all memory contents are lost... and clever people also disable the swapfile. With MRAM, all that is out the window.
Watch for a new meme in the next years, categorizing the use of volatile RAM as a presumption of guilt.
FATMOUSE + YOU = FATMOUSE
Too bad the summary had to mention "instant-on PC" because most of the responses so far are about "No way" or "my kewl macbook does that already" and such. The biggest advantage of MRAM over SRAM/eDRAM is not that it retains data without power (though that's nice too), it's that MRAM about as fast as current eDRAM and half the power. And even zero power when not used (while retaining most recent data) is a bonus.
This is a huge plus for ASICs and other chips (ASSPs, COTS, etc.) that have a lot of memory on them (which is most of them.) It allows more memory on a chip without expensive packages/die sizes for thermal management or complex, time-consuming power management systems. LSI (large-scale integrated) circuits use a lot of memory, and power consumption is a huge problem, so cutting that in half will enable a lot of products to be made that wouldn't have been possible/affordable before, and a lot of other products will get to market faster.
MRAM has been around for a while, but the relatively slow speed made it unsuitable for most applications. Now it will be great enabling technology that will ripple through many products that use semiconductor devices.
everything in moderation
Cool, this sounds like the ticket to fast Solid State hard drives.
The automobile is the ticket to moving horses around faster.
Or you can just have a car and skip the horse altogether.
And have 200 Gig of RAM and skip the Solid State drive altogether.
Whenever you buy new software you just put the software in the drive, load the software into your 200 Gig RAM, then you can just hit the power switch on the computer. Then whenever you want you just tap the power switch for an instant power-on and ALL of your software and ALL of your photos and ALL of your music and everything else, it's all already live in your 200 Gigs of RAM.
Yeah you'd want to change some aspects of the operating system to adapt to this new paradigm, in some ways you want to add new "hard drive style" management features in how you handle RAM, but you could throw the entire buggy-whip notion of a hard drive right out the window.
The only issue here is whether this is too expensive to have 100Gig+ bulk memory... but if that's the case then it would be too expensive for a "Solid State Hard Drive" anyway.
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System memory is currently running at 266-333MHz in the high end so this is a perfectly viable replacement in mid-range systems. Also for embedded systems where start-up time is more visible to the consumer than raw speed, again this is a viable replacement.
Remember DDR2 PC800 is 200MHz quad pumped not 800MHz.
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
... comparisons would be nicer. This new MRAM can process 1.1 million operations in the time it takes an egg to fall the width of a human hair. In fact, it's so fast, it can output 91 words in the time it takes light to travel the length of a football field.Hope this helps...