IBM

Crocus signed a joint technology development agreement and a mutual patent license agreement with IBM. They also signed a technology agreement - under which they will jointly develop semiconductor technology that combines Crocus' thermally assisted next generation Magnetic-Logic-Unit (MLU) technology with IBM's MRAM technology and processing capabilities.

MLU is a scalable evolution of Crocus' Thermally Assisted Switching (TAS) technology, and enables practical implementation of advanced magnetic logic and memory capabilities.

IBM reports some advances in their racetrack memory program, and they are now able to measure the movement and processing of data as a magnetic pattern on a nanowire (which is 1,000 finer than a human hair).

Racetrack memory uses electron spin to move data on nanowires at hundreds of miles per hour... IBM is not commercializing it yet, but racetrack memory has the potential to be very lower-power and high-density.

During the International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM) exhibition we got some updates about STT-MRAM research done at IBM, Samsung and Hynix-Grandis (who are researching STT-MRAM together).

IBM is working together with TDK and has presented a new 4-kbit perpendicular STT-MRAM array using tunnel junctions. Samsung has presented an on-axis MRAM with a novel MTJ, which they say open he way towards sub-30nm scaling. Using ferromagnetic electrode and a different MTJ structure design, Samsung think that they can scale this to a sub-20nm level.

Digitimes reports that Macronix has signed an agreement with IBM to continue to co-develop phase-change memory (PCM) technology. The company said it is optimistic about the outlook for PCM, which is likely to be a successor to all memory products used in computers and consumer electronics devices.

IBM is providing a preview of its new STT-MRAM technology. They have produced a 4-Kbit test device, using a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) with MgO tunnel barriers. They say that the new technology could enable a 64-Mbit MRAM (90nm). STT-RAM also uses less power than toggle MRAM.

The STT-RAM is part of the joint-research with TDK, announced in 2007

Via EETimes

In two papers published in the April 11 issue of Science, IBM Fellow Stuart Parkin and colleagues at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose describe both the fundamentals of a technology dubbed "racetrack" memory as well as a milestone in that technology. This milestone could lead to electronic devices capable of storing far more data in the same amount of space than is possible today, with lightning-fast boot times, far lower cost and unprecedented stability and durability.

Within the next ten years, racetrack memory, so named because the data "races" around the wire "track," could lead to solid state electronic devices - with no moving parts, and therefore more durable - capable of holding far more data in the same amount of space than is possible today. For example, this technology could enable a handheld device such as an mp3 player to store around 500,000 songs or around 3,500 movies - 100 times more than is possible today - with far lower cost and power consumption. The devices would not only store vastly more information in the same space, but also require much less power and generate much less heat, and be practically unbreakable; the result: massive amounts of personal storage that could run on a single battery for weeks at a time and last for decades.

After partnering with IBM in August, TDK now plans to produce high-capacity MRAM chips in 2008. It plans to make even higher-density chips in 2011.

Read more here (TradingMarkets.com)