January 2011

Everspin and Future Electronics expanded their distribution agreement to include Asia and Japan. In addition, Everspin is elevated to "Registered Supplier" status. This places Everspin's MRAM at the top of the list of solutions for a wide range of markets including enterprise storage, datacom/telecom, industrial automation, transportation, gaming and energy management.

NVE reported their financial results, and in the conference call they gave some interesting new details about their MRAM program. Daniel Baker (the CEO) says that NVE 'overcame many of the technical challenges in making MRAM'. In fact, the company is already shipped some sample prototype MRAM chips, but they don't call it 'production' yet. The samples will be for specialized niche applications - but the company sees this as a 'vehicle to develop MRAM technology'. In the future the company hopes to address large volume anti-tamper applications such as to prevent identity theft or improve the security of credit cards and smart cards.

In regards to Everspin being a licensee, here's what they say - "EverSpin is a company that's making and selling commercial MRAM, and they are spin-off of Freescale, which was a spin-off of Motorola. So, we have a long historical relationship. Motorola was an early investor in NVE, and we had research contracts and intellectual property agreements with Motorola. So, we believe that they share our vision for a very bright future for MRAM"

Everspin announced a new product, the MR25H40. It's a 4Mb MRAM with a fast, simple Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI). The MR25H40 requires no write delay, runs at clock speeds as fast as 40 MHz, and provides automatic data protection on power loss and unlimited endurance with more than 20 years data retention. This new chip is the highest density SPI MRAM (Everspin also offers 256Kb and 1Mb SPI MRAM). Samples of this chip are now available in industrial (-40°C to 85°C) temperature grades.

The MR25H40 MRAM product operates from 3.0 to 3.6 volts while offering low standby and operating currents as well as a sleep mode to further reduce system power consumption. The device is byte-organized internally, containing 4096 Kb of data. Industry-standard serial SPI command codes and timing enable easy connection to existing MCU and system designs. The MR25H40 is available in a small footprint 5mm x 6mm, 8-pin DFN package or an easily mounted 300 mil 8-pin DIP, which are both RoHS-compliant and are pin-out and footprint compatible with serial EEPROM, Flash and FeRAM products.

Global research firm VDC is presently conducting a worldwide MRAM user satisfaction research study for embedded hardware and embedded software development professionals, product managers and directors, and technology procurement specialists. VDC’s brief 16-question online survey is designed to capture confidential feedback from both early adopters of MRAM, as well as organizations that have chosen not to adopt MRAM at this time.

“VDC sees the global market for MRAM in 2011 at a critical inflection point for potential growth,” said VDC analyst Richard Dean. “With a number of well-funded start-up firms already shipping commercially to customers or expecting to begin shipping this year, MRAM adoption appears to be gaining considerable momentum. However, challenges remain, particularly as MRAM suppliers attempt to define their value propositions against competing incumbent memory technology.”