• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Freescale Claims Breakthrough in MRAM Memory

    July 17, 2006 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    Freescale Semiconductor, the chip manufacturing company that was spun out of Motorola, announced last week that it has commercialized a new memory technology called Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory, or MRAM, that looks as if it will shake up the computer business.

    Magnetoresistive, or MR, technologies were first commercialized in the disk heads of IBM disk drives created by the Rochester, Minnesota, laboratories–back when Big Blue used to create its own memory and disk storage technologies. Motorola is the first company to commercialize the use of MR technologies in memory chips. MRAM is a non volatile memory technology, like flash memory, which means it does not need electricity to keep its 1s and 0s in order and therefore store information, as Dynamic RAM, or DRAM, does. But MRAM is also designed to have something akin to the speed of static RAM, or SRAM, and uses magnetic fields to flip bits, which means that anything in memory stays in memory, even if the power is turned off. This makes MRAM something of a dream, if you are a systems designer.

    Of course, DRAM has speed as well as capacity. The most popular DDR2 Synchronous DRAM comes in 64 Mbit chip capacities and modules that have 1 GB or 2 GB of total capacity; cycle times on this memory range from 3.75 nanoseconds to 5 nanoseconds. Motorola’s first MRAM chip is quite a bit skinnier and a lot slower, being a 4 Mbit device that has a 35 nanosecond read and write cycle time; it costs about $25 a pop. Part of the problem with the speed of this Freescale MRAM is that is was made with a comparatively ancient 180 nanometer chip technology at Freescale. IBM has demonstrated MRAM with cycle times as low as 2 nanoseconds using more modern processes. Flash memory has its limits because it takes microseconds, not nanoseconds, to move data from the cells on the flash memory to the read/write buffer, although once the data is there, it can move at speeds approaching Motorola’s current MRAM.

    It would be interesting to see memory makers really push MRAM technologies to the limits and for server makers to stop messing around so much with chip speeds and get MRAM devices, which can compete on price with DRAM and offer many of the benefits of flash memory without the drawbacks. At the very least, MRAM is perfect for replacing the battery-backed SRAM units that sit as front-ends to main memory and disk controllers on a lot of servers.

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 15, Number 28 -- July 17, 2006

    Sponsored by
    DRV Technologies, Inc.

    Get More from Your IBM i

    Many users today struggle to get at the data they need on the IBM i. When users get reports, they look like they were formatted some time last century.

    Some organizations are still printing pre-printed forms and checks on impact printers.

    How often do operators log on to their system to look for messages they hope they don’t find?

    All of these scenarios can affect users’ perception of the IBM platform negatively, but there are simple solutions.

    DRV Technologies Inc. develops innovative solutions that help customers get more from their IBM i systems.

    Solutions include:

    • SpoolFlex spool conversion & distribution
    • FormFlex electronic forms
    • SecureChex MICR laser check printing
    • MessageFlex system monitoring

    FlexTools streamline resources, improve efficiency and enable pro-active system management.

    Better software, better service, DRV Tech.

    Learn how you can get more from your IBM i at www.drvtech.com

    Call 866 378-3366 for a Free Demonstration

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Admin Alert: Moving a Subsystem into its Own Shared Pool Don’t Depend on Arrival Sequence

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 15 Issue: 28

This Issue Sponsored By

    Table of Contents

    • IBM Offers Low Financing Rates for System i5 Upgrade Leases
    • Server Virtualization Is Mainstream, Says Yankee Group
    • Sundry Summer Announcements for the System i5
    • Midrange IT Professionals Working Overtime, Bigtime
    • A Closer Look at the Economics of the Solution Edition for JDE
    • Attachmate Completes NetIQ Acquisition, Previews Vista Support
    • Time Sharing: An Old Concept That’s Still With Us
    • JDA Completes Manugistics Deal, Warns of Weaker Second Quarter Results
    • As I See It: The Donking Life
    • Freescale Claims Breakthrough in MRAM Memory

    Content archive

    • The Four Hundred
    • Four Hundred Stuff
    • Four Hundred Guru

    Recent Posts

    • LANSA Developing Business Intelligence Tool
    • Blazing The Trail For VTL In The Cloud
    • Data De-Dupe Gives VTL Customers More Options
    • Four Hundred Monitor, March 29
    • The Big Spending On IT Security Is Only Going To Get Bigger
    • IBM Tweaks Some Power Systems Prices Down, Others Up
    • Disaster Recovery: From OS/400 V5R3 To IBM i 7.4 In 36 Hours
    • The Disconnect In Modernization Planning And Execution
    • Superior Support: One Of The Reasons You Pay The Power Systems Premium
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 13

    Subscribe

    To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

    Pages

    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Contributors
    • Four Hundred Monitor
    • IBM i PTF Guide
    • Media Kit
    • Subscribe

    Search

    Copyright © 2023 IT Jungle