Freescale Semiconductor (the chipmaking spin-off from Motorola ) is sampling its magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), which is touted as a replacement for Flash as a non-volatile memory.
MRAM combines the attributes of the three major memories—density of eDRAM, speed of eSRAM and the non-volatility of Flash—onto a single chip. MRAM uses magnetic moments rather than an electric charge to determine the on-off state of the memory bit cell and allows a single memory solution to replace multiple memory options within one chip, which helps to enable faster, lower power, more cost-effective solutions for next-generation wireless and other memory-intensive products.
Alpha customers are evaluating MRAM for mobile communications, office products, security and control systems, networking and storage products. According to the company, it maintains its expectation of ramping production in 2005.
When first announced, the Freescale was still part of Motorola. The 4 Mbit MRAM chips are based on a 0.18-micron five-level metal CMOS process technology.