Mram

[Lazy8s]

Freescale is announcing availability of their magnetic RAM: memory which retains its contents even while powered off.

They say their MRAM is ready for any application, including PCs, and that customers are already lined up. They don't intend to try to meet the expected volume of demand by themselves and will license the patents to other semiconductor companies as well.

 

[hoom]

So it differs from/improves on Flash how? Or shall I just do some googling...

 

[Tim Murray]

So it differs from/improves on Flash how? Or shall I just do some googling...

Doesn't degrade with lots of writes.

 

[hoom]

Yah, OK I see the value now

When used for reading, Flash and MRAM are very similar. However, Flash is re-written using a large pulse of voltage (about 10V) that is stored up over time in a charge pump, which is both power-hungry and time consuming. Additionally the current pulse physically degrades the Flash cells, which means Flash can only be written to some fixed number of times before it must be replaced.

In contrast, MRAM requires only slightly more power to write than read, eliminating the need for a charge pump. This leads to much faster operation, lower power consumption, and no effective "lifetime". These advantages are so overwhelming that it is expected Flash will be the first memory type to eventually be replaced by MRAM.

edit: even more impressed

MRAM has similar speeds to SRAM, similar density but much lower power consumption than DRAM, and is much faster and suffers no degradation over time in comparision to flash memory.

 

[klacik]

MRAM looks very promising... i'm curious about price when it comes out

 

[pcchen]

Although it looks like MRAM is a good candidate for replacing Flash, and it may eventually replace Flash, but I think it will be more likely to be a "cache" for Flash or similar storage needs, at least in near future. And it will be very suitable as main memory for small devices as it requires little power and you can put the device to sleep state (and resume) in a very short time.

 

[Lazy8s]

The $25 per 4-Mbit initial pricing from Freescale will greatly limit MRAM's application for a while.

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/overview.jsp?nodeId=0ST287482186253

Size, power consumption, speed/performance, and function give it almost universal potential for the future, though.

http://www.mram-info.com/

 

[Otto Dafe]

Oh no, you mean even resetting Windows won't fix it? AAAGGGHHHH

 

[nutball]

Looks like a nice technology ... give it tens years for the price to drop!

 

[hoom]

even resetting Windows won't fix it?

Oh noes!
Thats it, I'm gonna have to get out of tech support.

 

[Otto Dafe]

Oh noes!
Thats it, I'm gonna have to get out of tech support.

Whoa, don't do anything rash, I expect the immediate introduction of a 'flush' button in the shut-down menu. 'Flush' or 'plunge', what do you think has more pizzaz? Indeed, I might photoshop it, if not for the laziness facor .

 

[_xxx_]

Whoa, don't do anything rash, I expect the immediate introduction of a 'flush' button in the shut-down menu. 'Flush' or 'plunge', what do you think has more pizzaz? Indeed, I might photoshop it, if not for the laziness facor .

Or you make sure that you always have a huge magnet lying around...

 

[RussSchultz]

The $25 per 4-Mbit initial pricing from Freescale will greatly limit MRAM's application for a while.

A LONG while. NAND Flash is currently ~$25 per 4-Gb.

Of course, NAND flash was $25/4Mbit 8-10 years ago, so maybe its not that far off.

It is exciting, however, that they actually have a product in the market and its no longer 'in 5 to 10 years'.

 

[Snyder]

What about sensitivity to magnetic fields? This has always been a big advantage of flash ram (compared to e.g. floppy disks)

 

[_xxx_]

What about sensitivity to magnetic fields? This has always been a big advantage of flash ram (compared to e.g. floppy disks)

Two posts above yours ^^^

 

[KimB]

What about sensitivity to magnetic fields? This has always been a big advantage of flash ram (compared to e.g. floppy disks)

Well, yeah, I expect there will be some degree of sensitivity, though it should be more robust than magnetic strips, floppy disks, hard drive platters, etc. But regardless, I don't think MRAM would actually be all that useful for a replacement of flash memory: the density just isn't there yet, and neither is there much need for the added performance in such a format.

Instead, I suspect the primary initial use would be in small embedded devices, so that you could turn on and off the device instantly. Could be great for a number of handheld devices, such as PDA's.

 

[RussSchultz]

at $25 for 512KB of storage, its just not economic to put in any sort of consumer electronics.

 

[KimB]

at $25 for 512KB of storage, its just not economic to put in any sort of consumer electronics.

I don't know. How much RAM do current Cell phones and PDA's have? Some models of these things already cost hundreds of dollars. The added power savings for Cell phones might be very significant, and the ability to turn on/off PDA's at will may help there quite a bit as well.

 

[RussSchultz]

1$ gets you 8MB of SDRAM. $3 gets you 32MB (or more).
.50$ gets you 512 KB of NOR/EEPROM.
$20 gets you 1-2GB of NAND flash.

$25 is too much for 512KB of non-volatile storage in the high volume consumer market.

 

[KimB]

1$ gets you 8MB of SDRAM. $3 gets you 32MB (or more).
.50$ gets you 512 KB of NOR/EEPROM.
$20 gets you 1-2GB of NAND flash.

$25 is too much for 512KB of non-volatile storage in the high volume consumer market.

It does something that nothing else can, though. It has vastly higher speed than flash, lower power consumption than DRAM (for normal operation) or flash (for writing), and also is non-volatile. I imagine that MRAM could be used to great effect for a company wanting to significantly increase the battery life of their Cell phones.