April 2013

The US Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) awarded Crocus with a contract to develop 8-bit per cell MRAM technology. This is the first phase in a multi-bit cell development project that is scheduled to be completed in one year.

Crocus will expand its magnetic logic unit (MLU) architecture to enable 8-bit per cells. This will reduce the energy consumed per written-bit to be below any other technology currently available. Such MRAM chips will be used to enhance chip security and cryptoprocessors as hacking into those chips will be more complex.

Researchers from the US Ames Laboratory in collaboration with Iowa State University and Greece's University of Crete developed a new way to switch magnetism that is at least 1000 times faster than current technologies. This all-optical quantum method may lead towards terahertz (or even faster) MRAM devices and faster hard drives.

The new technology uses short laser pulses to change the magnetic structure (from anti-ferromagnetic to ferromagnetic ordering) in colossal magnetoresistive materials (CMRs).