Power/Performance Bits: March 17


MRAM speed Researchers at ETH Zurich and Imec investigated exactly how quickly magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) can store data. In the team's MRAM, electrons with opposite spin directions are spatially separated by the spin-orbit interaction, creating an effective magnetic field that can be used to invert the direction of magnetization of a tiny metal dot. "We know from earlier experiments, i... » read more

MRAM Process Development And Production Briefing


By Dr. Meng Zhu, Dr. Roman Sappey, and Jeff Barnum MRAM (Magnetoresistive Random-Access Memory) is a type of non-volatile memory (NVM) that utilizes magnetic states to store information. The basic structure of MRAM is a magnetic-tunnel junction (MTJ), which consists of two ferromagnetic (FM) layers separated by an insulating tunnel barrier (Fig.1). When the magnetizations of the two magnetic... » read more

Taming Novel NVM Non-Determinism


New memory technologies may have non-deterministic characteristics that add calibration to the test burden — and may require recalibration during their lifetime. Many of these memories are in development as a result of the search for a storage-class memory (SCM) technology that can bridge the gap between larger, slower memories like flash and faster DRAM memory. There are several approache... » read more

Battling Persistent Hacks At The Flash Level


Hardware vendors are beginning to close up security vulnerabilities across a broader range of technology than in the past, a sign that they are taking potential hardware breaches much more seriously. Awareness of security flaws has been growing since the introduction of Meltdown, Spectre and Foreshadow, and more recently, the Cable Haunt attack. The general conclusion among chipmakers is tha... » read more

Startup Funding: February 2020


AI drew the biggest investments last month, with two AI hardware companies and one autonomous driving software startup pulling in nine-figure sums. Investors also pumped money into semiconductor manufacturing and test equipment, notably around EUV lithography and advanced packaging. AI Hardware SambaNova Systems received $250M in Series C funding for its software-defined hardware for AI, le... » read more

The MCU Dilemma


The humble microcontroller is getting squeezed on all sides. While most of the semiconductor industry has been able to take advantage of Moore's Law, the MCU market has faltered because flash memory does not scale beyond 40nm. At the same time, new capabilities such as voice activation and richer sensor networks are requiring inference engines to be integrated for some markets. In others, re... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Jan. 21


Two-layer MRAM Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology propose a simpler MRAM construction that could perform faster with less power than conventional memories. The idea relies on unidirectional spin Hall magnetoresistance (USMR), a spin-related phenomenon that could be used to develop MRAM cells with an extremely simple structure. The spin Hall effect leads to the accumulation of elect... » read more

Building An MRAM Array


MRAM is gaining traction in a variety of designs as a middle-level type of memory, but there are reasons why it took so long to bring this memory to market. A typical magnetoresistive RAM architecture is based on CoFeB magnetic layers, with an MgO tunneling barrier. The reference layer should have zero net magnetization to make sure that it doesn’t influence the orientation of the free lay... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Oct. 15


Probabilistic computing Researchers at Purdue University and Tohoku University built a hardware demonstration of a probabilistic computer utilizing p-bits to perform quantum computer-like calculations. The team says probabilistic computing could bridge the gap between classical and quantum computing and more efficiently solve problems in areas such as drug research, encryption and cybersecurit... » read more

Magnetic Memories Reach For Center Stage


Wearable heart rate sensors. Networked smoke detectors. Smart lighting. Smart doorbells. While desktop computers and even smartphones are powerful standalone tools, Internet of Things devices share a need to collect data from the environment, store it, and transmit it to some other device for action or further analysis. In many systems, data storage and working memory account for the majorit... » read more

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