Crocus Nanoelectronics (CNE), Crocus and Rusnano's $300 million JV announced that they launched the first production line at their MLU (TAS-MRAM based) production line in Technopolis, Moscow. This line will produce MRAM using 90-nm process technology (on both 200 mm and 300 mm wafers). By the end of 2014, CNE will be able to produce 2,000 wafers per month.

MLU is a "disruptive CMOS-based rugged magnetic technology" that Crocus is co-developing with IBM. MLU offers important advantages in high speed, security, and robust performance at lower cost compared to other technologies. MLU can be used in smart cards, network commutators, biometric authenticating devices, near field communications, and secure memory.

Yesterday we reported that Crocus Technology raised €34 million (about $45 million) in their Series D round of funding. Crocus said that part of that money will be used to ramp up its manufacturing at Tower Semiconductors (in Israel), and today they reported about a major breakthrough in that technology development, which they will bring to market by Q4 2013.

Crocus, together with TowerJazz now offers SRAM-performance with non-volatile MRAM. The MRAM solution has demonstrated best-in-class performance and more than two billion cycles of program/erase were demonstrated on a 4M bit NVM product. The first market that the two companies will address is Battery Backed SRAM (BB-SRAM). The MRAM technology offers fast access times, low power and unlimited write cycles - without the need for cost, recharging and long-term disposal of a Lithium battery.

Crocus Technology signed a license and joint-promotion agreement with TowerJazz, for the use of Crocus' Magnetic Logic Unit (MLU) process technology. TowerJazz customers will be able to use Crocus' technology in embedded System-On-Chip (SoC) applications. First products based on MLU are expected on the market before the end of 2013 as some customers are already in the process of adopting the technology.

Crocus's MLU blocks are used in magnetic sensors and secure embedded memories. The memory is fast (like DRAM) and non volatile. It also includes unique security options. Crocus actually plans to produce (at TowerJazz's Migdal Haemek manufacturing facility in Israel) their own magnetic sensor and non-volatile memory products.

Everspin announced a new MRAM chip, the 1-Megabit serial MR10Q010 that features a Quad-SPI interface. Quad SPI, which has four serial I/O paths, is an evolutionary upgrade from SPI (that has a single I/O path). Everspin expects the new part, which has a 104 MHz clock speed with 52 MBps read/write bandwidth, to be used in applications that require high frequency, high-performance writes of most critical data.

The MR10Q010 MRAM offers read/write bandwidth comparable to parallel I/O MRAM but with a significant savings in pins and allows execute in place (XIP) operation. The chip includes a complete command set for Quad SPI operations including fast reads and writes in which address and data are input on all four I/Os to reduce clock cycles. The part comes in a cost-effective, low pin count 16-pin SOIC package – a savings of 20 pins over parallel interfaces – that supports low voltage levels with separate VDDQ for I/O. It is compatible with future high-density Quad SPI packages that Everspin is planning to introduce.

A couple of days ago we reported that Everspin will start sampling ST-MRAM chips soon, and today we got official word from Everspin that they are now sampling the first ST-MRAM chip. The EMD3D064M is a 64Mb DDR3 device, and select customers are already evaluation samples. Everspin is currently targeting the enterprise SSD market, to complement flash memory.

Everspin is manufacturing the ST-MRAM chips on its 200mm production line in Chandler, Arizona. The company is working to establish 300 mm MRAM tools and additional fab capacity. The company expects the EMD3D064M to become available in 2013.

Update: this is now official, Everspin's EMD3D064M is the world's first ST-MRAM chip, will ship in 2013

We just got word that Everspin will soon announce their first ST-MRAM product. From what we hear, the 64-Mbit chip is already sampling and clients are already evaluation it. Everspin is targeting the enterprise SSD market. Everspin's ST-MRAM chips will feature non-volatility, low latency and increased reliability.

If this is true, this is a very exciting moment for the MRAM industry, as many believe that Spin-Torque (ST-MRAM) technology will finally enable MRAM to reach high densities, lower prices and mass market adoption.

Avalanche Technology announced that it has raised $30 million from existing investors (Vulcan Capital, Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Thomvest Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures) and also from a new investor, VTB capital. Avalanche hopes that this investment will enable them to bring the first products into the market.

Avalanche will produce STT-MRAM chips based on their proprietary SPMEM (Spin Programmable Memory) technology. SPMEM uses a revolutionary spin current and voltage switching technology that enables "lower write current, smaller cell size and excellent scalability". The first products will use a 65 nm process, but the company says that their technology is scalable to 10 nm or even less.

Aeroflex launched three MRAM chips for the aerospace and defense markets: the UT8MR2M8 (16Mbit, 40-pin flatpack) and the UT8MR8M8 (64Mbit, 64-pin flatpack). The 64Mbit chip isactually the world's highest density MRAM chip (Everspin's highest one is only 16Mbit in size).

Aeroflex is using licensed MRAM technolgoy from Everspin, and it took them two years to modify Everspin's design so it fits their target markets.

There are reports that Everspin is looking for venture capital cash - as it wants to hire more people needed to expand operation. The company expects to ship over 5 million MRAM chips in 2012 to over 300 customers.

Last month Everspin announced a 300% growth in product shipment in 2011 with 250 new design wins, including Dell and LSI.

Everspin issued a PR today announcing a 300% growth in product shipment in 2011 - with 250 new design wins. Everspin actually revealed this information last week at CES. Everspin says that the enterprise storage, server and networking segment was the fastest growing segment during the year (Everspin's "traditinal" markets are the industrial, energy and automotive and transportation markets).

The company further revealed that a number of leading vendors in this segment are using MRAM for critical data storage in RAID systems, servers and routers. Both Dell and LSI are using Everspin's chips in their RAID controllers.