MRAM poised to be primary RAM solution

[Jito463]

The concept behind MRAM has been around for a long time (1974) but was overshadowed by cheaper - though more volatile - SRAM and DRAM. The following (and some of the previous ) is a quote from Computer Technology Review magazine, in an article by Aaron Reardon. I wanted to link to an article on their website, but couldn't find it there. So instead, I'll quote some from their article in the print mag, then link to another website that explains it.

How MRAM Works

MRAM uses magnetic fields created in a series of millions of nanoscopic power rails rather than electric charges to store memory.  By passing current through electrodes on either end of the power rail, the magnetic polarity is set to either 1 or 0.  Information is then read by passing another current through the rail and measuring resistance, any rail set to the state of '1' yeilds a higher resistance than that of '0'.

Because the spin state of the electron is stored magnetically, MRAM does not require a constant charge of electricity to maintain the polarity of each rail.  Lab test have shown that the state is very stable, even when exposed to shock or other magnetic fields.  Also, the magnetic write capability does not degrade at nearly the rate of current solid-state flash technology.

By harnessing the quantum property spin direction of electrons as well as the charge, MRAM allows for the electrons to exist in several states at once.  While every electron is set to a spin state of 'up' or 'down', the horizsontal quantum spin states are superpositions of the spin-up and spin-down states......

The Best of All Worlds

MRAM has accesss time as fast or faster than SRAM and and as dense as DRAM without any of the power or heat issues.  It retains data settings after power is removed making it non-volatile, like a hard drive minus the disk spin up and seek times, and it doesn't suffer the write degradation that flash devices have.  Mobile devices will benefit from the reduced power demands allowing usage for over a week on a single charge.

Probably the most anticipated feature of MRAM will be instant-on computing.  All prevalent softwware applications and data will reside in memory without any boot-up sequence, a user will literally push a button and the computer will power up exactly as it was when turned off.  MRAM's durability and low power needs combined with a done of radiation hardening make it perfect for defense and aerospace technologies and is set to be the primary data storage technology for satellites....

The article I found explaining it online is here:

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/mram.htm

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Science fiction is once again becoming science fact.