Toshiba develops MRAM for mobile processor

Press release; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 12 December 2012]

Toshiba has announced the development of a prototype memory element for a spin transfer torque magnetoresistive random access memory (STT-MRAM). The new MRAM element achieves what the company claims is the world's lowest power consumption yet reported, indicating that it has the potential to surpass the power consumption efficiency of SRAM as cache memory.

Like all digital products, mobile devices including smartphones and tablets rely on high-speed memory to supply the main processor with essential instructions and frequently requested data. Until now SRAM has provided the cache-memory solution. However, improving the performance of SRAM to match advances in mobile products results in increasing current leakage, both during operation and in standby mode, degrading power performance.

MRAM has emerged as an alternative to SRAM because it is non-volatile, cutting leak current during standby status, Toshiba noted. However, until now MRAM power consumption has exceeded that of SRAM, throwing up a major barrier to practical application.

Toshiba indicated that its new memory element advances the company's pioneering work in STT-MRAM and overcomes the longstanding operating trade-off by securing improved speed while reducing power consumption by 90%. The improved structure is based on perpendicular magnetization and takes element miniaturization to below 30nm. Introduction of this newly designed "normally-off" memory circuit with no passes for current to leak into cuts leak current to zero in both operation and standby without any specific power supply management.

Toshiba also confirmed the performance of the new STT-MRAM memory element with a highly accurate processor simulator. This modeled application of an STT-MRAM integrating the memory as cache memory and recorded a two-thirds reduction in power consumption by a standard mobile chip set carrying out standard operating functions, Toshiba said. This clearly points the way toward the first MRAM with the potential to surpass SRAM in practical operation.

Toshiba expects to bring the new memory element to STT-MRAM cache memory for mobile processors integrated into smartphones and tablets, and will promote accelerated R&D toward that end.