18-10-2010, 10:57 AM
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Magnetic RAM
INTRODUCTION
You hit the power button on your television and it instantly comes to
life. But do the same thing with your computer and you have to wait a
few minutes while it goes through its boot up sequence. Why can't we
have a computer that turns on as instantly as a television or radio? IBM,
in cooperation with Infineon, is promising to launch a new technology in
the next few years that will eliminate the boot-up process. Magnetic
random access memory (MRAM) has the potential to store more data,
access that data faster and use less power than current memory
technologies. The key to MRAM is that, as its name suggests, it uses
magnetism rather than electrical power to store data. This is a major leap
from dynamic RAM (DRAM), the most common type of memory in use
today, which requires a continuous supply of electricity and is terribly
inefficient. Twenty-five years ago, DRAM overtook ferrite core memory
in the race to rule the PC memory market. Now it looks like
ferromagnetic technology could be making a comeback, with IBM Corp.
and Infineon Technologies charging a joint team of 80 engineers and
scientists with the task of making magnetic RAM (MRAM) a
commercial reality within four years