Freescale gives MRAM updates

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.