July 10, 2006 – The first commercial magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) device is now in volume production and available from Freescale Semiconductor.

The device, the MR2A16A, is intended for a variety of commercial applications such as networking, security, data storage, gaming and printers. The part is engineered to be a reliable, economical, single-component replacement for battery-backed SRAM units. The company says it could also be used in cache buffers, configuration storage memories and other applications which require the speed, flexibility and non-volatility of MRAM.

Manufactured at Freescale’s 200 millimeter Chandler Fab in Arizona, the device is available at an SRP of $25 in volumes of 1,000 units.

“Competition to become the first company to market MRAM technology was fierce,” said Bob Merritt of Semico Research in a prepared statement. “This is a significant achievement that certainly confirms the dedication of Freescale’s engineering team.”

MRAM uses magnetic materials combined with conventional silicon circuitry to deliver the speed of SRAM with the non-volatility of Flash in a single device. The commercialization of the technology could hasten new classes of electronic products that offer significant advances in size, cost, power consumption and system performance.

– David Forman