Freescale is the first semiconductor manufacturer to start mass production of MRAM memory chips (Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory) and according to an analyst this could be the most important memory chip to be introduced in decades. What makes MRAM so special is the first M of the name. The memory chips namely uses magnetism to store the data and in difference to electronic memory chips that require a voltage to keep the data, MRAM can store data even without power. In other words you can cut the power completely and still have the data left with MRAM chips, like a regular harddrive or flash memory.
MRAM is something in between the RAM chips (SRAM, Static RAM) we find in our computers and flash memory. MRAM can keep the data without power which SRAM can’t, while MRAM has considerably higher transfer rates than flash memory.
“MRAM uses magnetic materials combined with conventional silicon circuitry to deliver the speed of SRAM with the non-volatility of Flash in a single, high endurance device. Freescale’s successful commercialization of this technology could hasten new classes of electronic products offering dramatic advances in size, cost, power consumption and system performance.”
MRAM has some truly interesting uses or what would you say about a RAM drive that does not require battery power when the computer is turned off. Or a portable media player with really high transfer rates. What you have to weave into this fantasy is the storage capacity. Freescale has started massproducing its first MRAM chip, named MR2A16A, but this chip has a storage capacity at only 4Mb (512KB).
