New Report Analyzes Opportunities in the Emerging MRAM Market23 January 2005
Sterling, VA: Magnetic computer memory (MRAM) combines the speed of SRAM with the non-volatility of Flash. It also offers a low-power memory solution, which eventually may match DRAM's capacity and density. All this makes MRAM look like the universal memory solution of the future. A just-released report from NanoMarkets, LC—a leading industry analyst firm based here—claims that the MRAM market will grow to $2.1 billion by 2008, and $16.1 billion by 2012. Additional information about the report can be found at www.nanomarkets.net.
Near-term opportunities that NanoMarkets sees emerging for MRAM include:
Cell phones, PDAs and notebooks—MRAM is an attractive alternative to deploying both Flash and DRAM. It can save money and space. With software applications residing in memory, mobile devices will rapidly power up to exactly where they were when they were turned off. This will prove useful for someone who wants to use his notebook for a few minutes between flights. With its strong ties to Motorola, and early entry into the MRAM business, NanoMarkets believes Freescale will help give MRAM credibility in the cell phone sector.
Computing and networking—MRAM will be used to avoid boot-up delays and to provide faster access to hard drives and non-volatile backup capabilities. At present, BIOS tends to use high cost, low density EEPROM or battery backed-up SRAM and volatile memory is used to alleviate I/O bottlenecks. In such applications, MRAM could prove in economically. Cypress—another early MRAM supplier—is already pushing its MRAM product as an SRAM replacement, while IBM views MRAM as a replacement for embedded DRAM. (IBM is working jointly with Infineon in this space.)
Factory automation—microcontrollers and robots typically employ both RAM and PROMs/Flash. Lower costs will be achieved by replacing these two chips with one MRAM device.
RFID—RFID tags need low-cost, non-volatile memory and at least one company (Micromem Technologies) is targeting this sector with MRAM products. A price point that makes MRAM economically viable for RFID applications will almost certainly push MRAM into other cost-sensitive areas.
Military—MRAM is "rad hard" which makes it suitable for use in missiles and spacecraft and perhaps on battlefields where equipment could potentially be exposed to tactical nuclear weapons. Honeywell is already selling products for this sector.
In addition to analyzing the current and future opportunities for MRAM, NanoMarkets' new report, "Magnetic Memory: An Analysis and Forecast of the Market for MRAM" analyzes the strategies of 20 firms that are actively engaged in pursuing MRAM-related revenues. These include some of the giants of the electronics industry such as Hewlett-Packard, NEC, Philips and Toshiba, as well as smaller players such as NVE, Spintron and Trikon. The report also provides eight-year forecasts that break out the market by key applications segments.
This is one of a new series of reports from NanoMarkets that examine key areas of the emerging nanoelectronics market. The reports are available as a subscription service or may be purchased individually. Through the end of January the firm has announced a special pricing program. For additional information about these reports, contact Robert Nolan at (571) 434-7520 or sales@nanomarkets.net or visit www.nanomarkets.net to learn more.
Contact:
Robert Nolan
(571) 434-7520
Source: Nano Markets
All trademarks and copyrighted information contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
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