Freescale Develops Working Mram Chip

Posted on July 25, 2006

The BBC reports on a Freescale announcement that is has developed a working half-megabyte magnetoresistive random-access memory or Mram chip. Mram is looked to as a technology that has the potential to replace hard discs.

It is very small compared to the Ram and flash chips on the market, but it is a start.
In fact many companies, including IBM, have been working on the nanotechnology behind Mram for around a decade.
Put simply, Mram stores data magnetically, in the same way a hard drive does. This makes it non-volatile.
It is also very quick, and does not wear out over time. So it seems to have the advantages of both RAM and flash, with none of the disadvantages.

Engadget warns not to get too excited because these will not be immediately available for consumers.

Only don't expect these new chips to hit your price sensitive consumer electonics just yet. The first markets for MRAM will most likely be automotive or industrial settings where durability is critical. So hold tight and let the invisible hand work some magic, mkay?

A Wikipedia entry says supporters of MRAM believe it has the potential to become the dominant storage device, surpassing Flash RAM and DRAM.

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