Although the MRAM in the SoC's have a capacity of only few megabytes, Toshiba has plans to push this kind of memory as a replacement for conventional random access memory and NAND flash memory. MRAM uses magnetic data storage for storing data, as opposed to the current conventional technologies that use electricity. Accordingly, MRAM is a persistent memory that retains data even when not powered. On the other hand, due to the working mode it usually consumes more power when operating at higher speeds.

In Toshiba's study spin torque technology was used, in which the spin of electrons is used to set the orientation of the magnetic bits, thereby reducing the cost required for transcription. Experimental chips are made with advanced technology using elements of less than 30nm. A Toshiba spokesman said the company currently has no deadline in which it is planning to launch this technology. Toshiba will present their research related to semiconductor technology next week in San Francisco, at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting.

[Ed – this is not the first time that MRAM has been brought up as an alternative to standard memory technology. However, there have always been power issues to overcome along with other problems in production and manufacture. Still MRAM could be one of the technologies we see pushed as a cost effective replacement for SRAM in the near future.]

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