October 2006

We're added a new section to MRAM-Info: events. This will list MRAM related conferences and exhibitions. If we missed any conferece, please let us know!

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Product sales for the quarter increased 87% over the prior-year quarter to $3.78 million from $2.02 million. Total revenue, consisting of product sales and contract research and development revenue, increased 44% to $4.40 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2007 from $3.05 million in the prior-year quarter. Net income for second quarter fiscal 2007 was $1.28 million, or $0.27 per diluted share compared to $363,968, or $0.08 per diluted share, for the prior-year quarter.

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Forty customers have bought samples of the 4M-bit chips, which Freescale sells for US$25 each in sample quantities of less than 1,000. Two of them are now buying production quantities, the company said.

Pricing for production quantities "is negotiated case by case," said Wild. He compared the price of the chips to that of DRAM (dynamic RAM), the memory used in computers. "In 1974, 1M bit of DRAM cost $75,000. Today, it's a small fraction of a cent. There's no reason why MRAM should not make the same evolution, if not faster," he said.

Freescale made the 4M-bit chips using its 180-nanometer process technology, and said it has produced 16M-bit parts in its labs using a 90-nm process. As Freescale reduces the size of the features on the chips, it increases their density and capacity.

"We have shown we can do it down to 65 nm and beyond," said Wild.

Domain Technologies announces the availability of the industry's first, royalty-free, synthesizable MCS8051 code-compatible microcontroller netlist library (Developed by Silicon Laude) and software development kit for use with Actel FPGAs that also includes a royalty-free license to implement resulting microcontroller designs in a Tekmos merged ASIC. Implementing a customized 8051 microcontroller in an FPGA is still relatively expensive for volumes of 10,000 to 100,000 pieces. So one of the unique features of the kit is a royalty-free license to implement MRAM8051 designs in a Tekmos merged ASIC, enabling customers to realize substantial cost savings in low to medium production runs compared to FPGAs.

Priced at under $5,000.00, the netlist library is directly compatible with Actel's Libero Platinum and Libero Gold FPGA integrated development environment software, and includes Domain Technologies BoxView Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and real-time debugging software, USB-powered MRAM8051 OLED development card with Freescale 512 kbyte Magneto-Resistive Random Access Memory (MRAM), color OLED graphic display driver C source code, and a bit mapped image transfer GUI that allows developers to easily transfer images directly into the MRAM8051 external data memory via the development card's USB-JTAG interface.