A Chip Worth Remembering
Flip on your PC or laptop, and start waiting. The reason you need to boot up-loading software from your hard drive into your random-access memory (RAM) chip-is that most electronic computer memory requires power to keep data intact. Take away the power, and the memory evaporates. For years, researchers have tried to develop fast and cheap memory that stores data as magnetic orientation, which stays fixed whether or not the power is on. Now, an early version of this technology-called magnetic random-access memory, or MRAM-is moving into production.
The MRAM chip, built by Motorola, holds only four megabits of data and is expensive, which means its first applications are likely to be in high-end security systems and gaming machines, where small amounts of crucial code could be stored without fear of loss. But by the end of the decade, MRAM chips may be suitable for gadgets like digital cameras and handheld computers, says Saied Tehrani, Motorola’s technology director for MRAM in Tempe, AZ. Motorola says it is working with several customers to improve prototypes of its first-generation chip before starting full-scale production late this year.
Researchers, including those at Motorola and IBM, have been working on MRAM for more than a decade but kept encountering the same problem: recording information magnetically on one memory cell tended to disturb the magnetic orientation of its neighbors.
Motorola’s solution is a two-step data-writing method that effectively isolates bits from one another. Bob Merritt, an analyst at Semico Research in Phoenix, calls the Motorola advance “a substantial breakthrough.”
It might be a decade before the technology is ready for PCs, but one intermediate goal is replacing the flash memory used in digital cameras and cell phones. Unlike RAM, flash memory retains data when the power is off, but it’s expensive, slow, and too bulky to accommodate the memory demands and size constraints of next-generation devices. Motorola’s MRAM chips are 1,000 times faster at storing new information than flash memory, so they could, for example, record digital-camera images more quickly, eliminating the delay before the next picture can be taken. While it remains to be seen whether Motorola will deliver an instant-on computer, its MRAM chip is an important first step.
The Attraction of MRAM | |
COMPANY | STATUS |
IBM/Infineon Technologies (Armonk, NY/Munich, Germany) | Joint venture in France, which has delayed MRAM production until at least late 2005 |
Motorola (Schaumburg, IL) | Commercial MRAM production by late 2004 |
NEC/Toshiba (Tokyo, Japan) | MRAM joint venture, which has prototypes but no commercialization plans so far |
Philips Electronics/STMicroelectronics (Eindhoven, Netherlands/Geneva, Switzerland) | Collaboration with Motorola to develop denser, higher-capacity MRAM chips |
Keep Reading
Most Popular
Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.
And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.
The problem with plug-in hybrids? Their drivers.
Plug-in hybrids are often sold as a transition to EVs, but new data from Europe shows we’re still underestimating the emissions they produce.
How scientists traced a mysterious covid case back to six toilets
When wastewater surveillance turns into a hunt for a single infected individual, the ethics get tricky.
Google DeepMind’s new generative model makes Super Mario–like games from scratch
Genie learns how to control games by watching hours and hours of video. It could help train next-gen robots too.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.