“Achieving a long-sought goal of the $48 billion memory chip industry, Freescale Semiconductor Inc. announced the commercial availability of a chip that combines traditional memory’s endurance with a hard drive’s ability to keep data while powered down,” CBS News reports.
“The chips, called magnetoresistive random-access memory or MRAM, maintain information by relying on magnetic properties rather than an electrical charge. Unlike flash memory, which also can keep data without power, MRAM is fast to read and write bits, and doesn’t degrade over time,” CBS News reports.
“Freescale, which was spun off of Motorola Inc. in July 2004, said Monday it has been producing the 4-megabit MRAM chips at an Arizona factory for two months to build inventory. A number of chip makers have been pursuing the technology for a decade or more, including IBM Corp.,” CBS News reports. “Sometimes referred to as ‘universal’ memory, MRAM could displace a number of chips found in every electronic device, from PCs, cell phones, music players and cameras to the computing components of kitchen appliances, cars and airplanes.”
“‘This is the most significant memory introduction in this decade,’ said Will Strauss, an analyst with research firm Forward Concepts. ‘This is radically new technology. People have been dabbling in this for years, but nobody has been able to make it in volume.’ Static and dynamic random access memory chips, used in PCs and elsewhere, are fast but lose data when the power is switched off. Flash memory chips, which are commonly found in music players, cameras and cell phones, retain information but are slower and degrade over time,” CBS News reports.
“Ultimately, the technology could displace the RAM found in PCs, enabling systems that boot up immediately because data don’t have to be reloaded into the memory chips. Freescale has been working on the technology for nearly a decade, said Saied Tehrani, who directs the Austin-based company’s MRAM program. He said Freescale already has customers, but he declined to name any,” CBS News reports.
CBS News reports, “Most of the companies working on MRAM have touted prototypes and research advances but have been quiet about commercial production plans. That could change after Freescale’s announcement. ‘Freescale is the first one that says, ‘I’m ready to take orders,”‘ said Merritt, the Semico analyst. ‘Other companies will start to say, ‘Here’s where I am in my program.’ We’ll see who shows up.'”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Johnny Bravo” for the heads up.]
Advertisements:
• Introducing the super-fast, blogging, podcasting, do-everything-out-of-the-box MacBook. Starting at just $1099.
• Get the new iMac with Intel Core Duo for as low as $31 A MONTH with Free shipping!
• Get the MacBook Pro with Intel Core Duo for as low as $47 A MONTH with Free Shipping!
• Apple’s new Mac mini. Intel Core, up to 4 times faster. Starting at just $599. Free shipping.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.
If these find their way into an upcoming Mac, the already jaw-dropping performances will simply eclipse everything else in the market. Imagine Xserve systems equipped with this… Or an ultra-mobile mac, or an iPhone….
The potential is endless…
progress moves on, and everything gets a little bit more expensive.
reat potenial!
It sounds like something EVERYBODY will want in their portable … portable computer, portable phone, portable music player …
“He said Freescale already has customers, but he declined to name any…”
Apple.
As long as they won’t have to worry about supply issues, that is.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
would this mean that you could turn off your computer without it booting next time you switch it on?
J, you are so sadly wrong. Fortunately. In the field of electronics, price goes nowhere but down. And if you factor in performance, well then, there simply is no comparison. Compare the cost of a Walkman to today’s iPod, the DVD 400-disc changer I bought this weekend to my first CD player, the MacBookPro I bought this year compared to the $8000 Mac II empty chassis or the $8000 first Mac Portable, etc., etc. “Everything” does not in fact get a little bit more expensive. Many things do, but in this field, not only does performance/$ get better, but actual hard cost goes down as well. Factor in inflation, and current electronics are drastically cheaper than their predecessors.
A whopping 1/2 megabyte per chip. So let’s see… you could probably fit 16 of these onto a typical memory module… that’s 8 megabytes. So to load up a typical system with 1 GByte you would need 128 memory modules.
Oh…and these things eat around 0.1 AMP PER chip (for a read or write cycle). That’s 1.6 amps per module, or 205 amps just to power your 1GB of ram. That’s almost 700 watts, twice what a G5 Quad draws when all 4 cylinders are running at 100%.
We’re not quite there yet.
“These boots were made for walkin’…”
An absolute boon for those PC users who want to save some time whilst continually rebooting their crashed computers.
too hot – and Xserve? you don’t really reboot Xserves…what would the benefit be to save 60 seconds every yearly reboot?
More likely, a home PVR style Mac mini would benefit because it would tend to be powered on and off with the Entertainment System.
@ me
What would be helpful for Xserve is that “MRAM is fast to read and write bits, and doesn’t degrade over time”
rather than the reboot advantage…
No wonder their stock is trading up today. This is some pretty good news. That technology is certainly forward thinking.
i guess if i ever had to reboot my computer more often than when i get software upgrades this would be pretty nice. otherwise, who cares?
I can see it now — iPod ONE
Thank you, Wingsy, for doing the math and beating me to the punch. Exactly what I was going to say. This is interesting but not quite ready for prime time, yet.
“DVD 400-disc changer”
ROTFLMAO…you bought one?
The only reason to touch a DVD (by renting or netflix) is to rip it to a hard drive.
god.. I’d never waste money actually buying DVDs.
Are you going to then spend another ~$7,000 on dvds to fill it?
These devices may well be a major breakthrough …… so long as they only consume a miniscule amount of power, really are faster than flash, have an infinite number of read/write cycle, are absolutely dependable and have the packing density that is comparable to existing flash memory.
Unless it satisfies all of those criteria simultaneously, it’s of limited use within portable computers and iPods, but there will clearly be many applications where it’s unique qualities may be advantageous, even if it’s lacking in some of those requirements at the moment.
As things currently stand, I’d regard this as a technology to keep an eye on, rather than something that’s now ready to take the world by storm. However, if all goes well, it may get further refined and become a great thing one day.