NEC claims world's fastest MRAM

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Japan's NEC Corp. Friday (Nov. 30) claimed that it has developed the world's fastest MRAM.

NEC's new ''SRAM-compatible, MRAM'' can operate at 250-MHz. The MRAM has a memory capacity of 1-megabit. Incorporating a memory cell with two transistors, one magnetic tunnel junction, and a newly-developed circuit scheme, the new design achieves an operation speed of 250-MHz.

That's twice as fast as current MRAMs on the market, according to NEC. Tests carried out using an internal signal-monitoring circuit demonstrated data output time of 3.7 nanoseconds from a 250-MHz clock edge.

NEC has been actively carrying out MRAM research since 2000. MRAM is a next-generation memory technology. It realizes fast operation speeds, nonvolatility and unlimited write endurance.

Verification at the SRAM speed level proves that the newly-developed MRAM could be embedded in system LSIs as SRAM substitutes in the future.

EEtimes.