Chipmaker Freescale Semiconductor announced today that they’ve begun volume production on the first magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) devices to be available commercially. The first devices are 3.3 Volt, 4 Mbit parts with 35 nanosecond read and write cycles, and are built using standard SRAM pin-out arrangement so they can easily be used in place of existing components. As with all forms of memory, you can expect speeds and capacity to increase over time as overall costs decline.
What’s the big deal about MRAM? Well, in a nutshell, it’s fast like the conventional RAM memory used in computers, portable devices, and any number of digital gizmos today, but retains its contents indefinitely without power by relying on magnetic properties of its materials.
Saving data without power
