MRAM history

The early years

• 1989 - IBM scientists made a string of key discoveries about the "giant magnetoresistive" effect in thin-film structures.
• 2000 - IBM and Infineon established a joint MRAM development program.
• 2002 - NVE Announces Technology Exchange with Cypress Semiconductor.
• 2003 - A 128Kbit MRAM chip was introduced, manufactured win 0.18 technology.

2004

• June - Infineon unveiled a 16-Mbit prototype based on 0.18 micron.
• September - MRAM becomes a standard product in Freescale, which has began sampling MRAM.
• October - Taiwan developers of MRAM to tape out 1Mbit parts at TSMC.
• October - Micron drops MRAM, mulls other memories.
• December - TSMC, NEC, Toshiba describe novel MRAM cells.
• December - Renesas Technology Develops High-Speed, High-Reliability MRAM Technology.

2005

• January - Cypress samples MRAM, uses NVE IP.
• March - Cypress to Sell MRAM Subsidiary.
• June - Honeywell posts 1-Mbit rad-hard MRAM data sheet.
• August - MRAM record: memory cell runs at 2 GHz.
• November - Renesas Technology and Grandis to Collaborate on Development of 65 nm MRAM Employing Spin Torque Transfer.

2006

• February - Toshiba and NEC Develop World's Fastest, Highest Density MRAM.
• June - Crocus raises 17M$ on potential of MRAM.
• July - Freescale begins selling 4-Mbit MRAM.

2007

• March - Honeywell develops non-volatile MRAM for strategic space applications.
• June - Freescale expands MRAM product line.
• August - TDK and IBM partner for STT-RAM research, to produce high-capacity MRAM chips in 2008.
• October - Micromem starts to produce MRAM wafers.
• November - Toshiba develops new MRAM device which opens the way to giga-bits capacity
• November - NEC Develops World's Fastest SRAM-Compatible MRAM With Operation Speed of 250MHz
• December - Micromem says First Foundry MRAM Manufactured

2008

• January - Hynix and Samsung get 50M$ from government to develop new chips including STT-RAM
• March - Siemens Selects Freescale MRAM for Industrial Automation Touch-Screen Products
• April - Hynix licenses Grandis' STT-RAM technology
• April - Freescale sold over 1 million MRAM chips, has 45 customers, planning to reduce price
• June - Toshiba shows advances in 1Gb MRAM, expects MRAM to take over DRAM in 2015
• June - Freescale to spin-off MRAM to a new company called everspin, gets 20M$ investment
• June - Samsung and Hynix to launch STT-MRAM JV in september, expect the chip to mature around 2012
• August - Researchers built a spin-torque system that is dramatically faster than any other
• October - Crocus raises 16M$ to complete MRAM development
• October - Renesas says new roadmap includes MRAM, will release MRAM samples by 2009 and products by 2010
  
• October - Grandis gets 6M$ DARPA grant for STT-RAM research
• November - Seagate says they are putting a lot of money into next-gen memory including MRAM
• November - Everspin releases new, smaller and cheaper MRAM products aimed for consumer applications
• December - IBM shows new STT-MRAM tech with 20-fold increase in capacity (up to 64Mbit)

2009

• February- Grandis opens fabrication facility for STT-RAM
• February- Samsung and Hynix started to work on STT-RAM in a joint venture
• February- NEC develops 32MB embeddable MRAM
• March- Crocus says will have MRAM product by end of 2009
• March - Everspin sees growing interest in MRAM, rapid increase in cusomter design activity
• May - Everspin ships over 100K MRAM chips to Siemens with zero defects
• June - NEC working on perpendicular MRAM, to make chips in 2010
• June - Tower to make MRAM chips for Crocus, will start manufacture towards the end of 2009
• July - Emerson Network Power to use Everspin's MRAM in their industrial computing boards
• September - Airbus to use Everspin's MRAM in flight control computer
• September - Crocus announced a new STT-MRAM technology that can compete with DRAM and NOR-Flash
• November - Everspin introduces new MRAM chips with a serial interface
• November - Hynix and Samsung to co-develop STT-MRAM in a $40 million project

2010

• January - Japanese researchers create a new TMR element that will enable 10 Gbit STT-MRAM 
• April - Everspin introduces new 16 MBit MRAM chips
• June - The world's first MRAM-based FPGA is ready for production
• June - Grandis awarded $8.6 million from DARPA for a 2nd phase STT-RAM research project
• July - Researchers create a new STT-RAM structure, reduces current by a factor of 50
• July - Aeroflex licenses MRAM technology from Everspin
• August - Magsil finally out of stealh-mode, plans to make 1Mb MRAM chips soon
• September - ENP announces a new single-board computer with 512KB of MRAM
• October - Crocus to start mass-producing TAS-MRAM in 2H 2011
• November - STT announces a major-step towards STT-MRAM commercialization

2011

• February - BMW uses new automotive-temperate Everspin MRAM in their S-1000RR super bike
• March - Everspin says they shipped over 1.5 million MRAM chips, plans to sell over 4.5 million in 2011
• March - Spingate working on 4Gbit pS-MRAM chip design
• May - Crocus receives a $125 million investment from Rusnano to produce MRAM chips in Russia
• June - Crocus developed NAND-like MRAM based technology called Magnetic Logic Unit (MLU)
• June - NEC and Tohoku University developed MRAM based spin-CAM
  
• July - Toshiba and Hynix to co-develop and co-produce STT-MRAM chips
• August - Samsung acquires Grandis
• August - Toshiba to use MRAM as cache for HDD and NAND
• October - Everspin to launch STT-MRAM in 2012, partners with Cadence on memory models
• October - Crocus and IBM to jointly-develop MRAM technology, sign patent license agreements
• October - Micron and A*STAR to jointly develop high density STT-MRAM
• December - Samsung developed a perpendicular MTJ at 17nm

2012

• January - Everspin reports 250 new MRAM design wins in 2011, lists Dell and LSI as customers
• January - NVE sues Everspin over 3 MRAM patents