News

posted on 09 June 2008 09:49

Freescale Semiconductor is spinning out a new company from its operation; EverSpin Technologies, which will make MRAM chips combining static RAM's speed and flash memory's non-volatility.

MRAM is Magneto-resistive Random Access Memory and is a relatively new and developing technology that could replace both DRAM and flash memory if its chip capacities and price both achieve the right levels.

DRAM store electric charges which need to be frequently refreshed to retain their state and signal binary ones and zeroes. Flash changes state permanently when written and retains its contents when power is switched off.

The seductive attractive of MRAM and other technologies combining DRAM and flash attributes is that they offers lightning speed and instant operating readiness when a device using it is switched on. There is simply no need to fetch operating system code into memory from a flash store or, even slower, a spinning hard drive. Nor is there a need to write memory contents to a permanent store when the device is switched off - there is 'instant off' as well as 'instant on'.

Currently MRAM chips are relatively experimental and have small capacities, 4Mbits in EverSpin's case. Substantial development funding is required and Freescale, reckoning the technology is close to commercialisation, has persuaded five venture capitalists - New Venture Partners, Sigma Partners, Lux Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Epic Ventures - to think likewise and fund EverSpin to the tune of $20 million in a first investment round.

Freescale is the volume leader in MRAM production and EverSpin will gain that cachet. As part of the spin out agreement, EverSpin Technologies will take ownership of the Freescale MRAM manufacturing assets, and will be based in Chandler, Arizona. EverSpin will continue to supply products to Freescale’s existing standalone MRAM customers. EverSpin will also be a supplier to Freescale of MRAM technology for use in Freescale’s embedded products.

Saied Tehrani, COO for EverSpin Technologies, said: “The potential for MRAM to impact the way commercial and consumer devices are developed and brought to market is enormous. The EverSpin team looks forward to expanding on the technical and market successes that we achieved within Freescale.”

A representative of one of the VCAPs, Steve Socolof, managing partner of New Venture Partners LLC, said: “Current Freescale MRAM products have strong traction in the market and Freescale has recognized that the business opportunity will increase with a focused, independent company. The unique performance characteristics and superior reliability of Freescale’s MRAM products makes EverSpin an excellent investment opportunity. We are pleased to partner with Freescale to provide the support and resources needed to expand EverSpin’s product portfolio and its technology roadmap.”

Freescale had 2007 sales of $5.7 billion and, clearly, this is no idle play.

Competition

At the beginning of June we reported that Toshiba and partners were about to bring out a 1Gbit MRAM chip.

Hynix is developing Spin Transfer Torque RAM (STT-RAM) with similar DRAM speed + flash permanence characteristics.

Numonyx is developing Phase Change Memory again with DRAM speed combined with flash permance.

We now have a three horse race.

^{[Paul Roberts, news editor.]}