Re: MRAM faster than DRAM?

On Mar 19, 1:52 am, Nemo <P...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I read that MRAM is many times faster thanDRAMand used in an
sattelite.

I think the main reason it's used in satellites is that it's rad-hard
(ie, unlike a normal memory cell, it is much less likely that cosmic
rays will corrupt its contents).

If MRAM is so fast then why not use it in Computers? Can we not use
MRAM in Digital Cammera and other devices to make them faster?

I have used it and yes, it's fast, dunno if it's faster thanDRAMetc
though! What the article says is is, it is faster than *Flash* for
writing. I figured it was essentially as fast as SRAM, but nonvolatile
(ie, the data stays there when the power goes off).

MRAM has been for sale for many years under the name FRAM. For info
about FRAMs look atwww.ramtron.com
a small American company who have been making them for over a decade.
The main problem with their product is that the memories don't come in
large sizes - they haven't had the financial resources to make (8Mbit?
Whatever the current Flash sizes are) so they've had to aim for "small,
specialist, cost-no-object" niches. The sizes are too small for camera
memories.

FRAMs have been around a long time and Hitachi, for example, were very
interested in them a decade ago and promised an imminent release of some
products. Then one of our periodic semicinductor industry contractions
occurred and they decided to focus elsewhere (DRAMS I think). Now FRAMS
are back in fashion - Texas is into them too, I suspect they've licensed
Ramtron's technology - but they tend to be called MRAMs by other
companies, I am not sure if there is a subtle difference between MRAM
and FRAM or if this is simply a marketing ploy.

What a lot of people want is FRAM built into microcontrollers in place
of Flash. The first company to market that will clean up a lot of
applications.
--
Nemo

FRAM (or more commonly referred to as FeRAM) is a type of memory
storage technology that is distinctly different from MRAM. It's not
marketing.

MRAM is potentially a better technology than FeRAM, but FeRAM
technology is far more mature at present.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferroelectric_RAM





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Relevant Pages

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