SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Motorola Labs, the research arm of Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), partnering with the DigitalDNA™ Laboratories of the Semiconductor Products Sector, today at the IEEE International Solid State Circuits Conference, disclosed an industry milestone in developing MRAM (magnetoresistive random access memory). This universal memory has the potential to revolutionize the $48 billion semiconductor memory market and offers an array of innovative, affordable memory-based applications for digital consumers worldwide.

"We believe Motorola is ready to lead the industry, as the first company to demonstrate and successfully process 256k MRAM chips," said Padmasree Warrior, corporate vice president and chief technology officer, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector.

"With our 8-inch wafer 'lab-fab' in Chandler, Arizona, we are now able to take MRAM to smaller geometries which allows us to drive to higher memory densities and higher performance," said Saied Tehrani, MRAM program manager at Motorola's DigitalDNA Laboratories. "Once MRAM development is completed, we expect the transfer to manufacturing will be accomplished quickly. This innovative lab-fab arrangement is expected to enable us to achieve our goal of MRAM samples in 2003 and production in 2004."

Collaboration with and funding from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) and Motorola's early research on MRAM has enabled the company to be at the forefront of this technology.

Consumer benefits of this revolutionary memory chip technology could be huge -- eliminating pet peeves such as slow computer or cell phone startup, data loss, long waits for data to load and short battery life. For example, today's computers need to reload information into local memory from the hard disk drive when power is turned on. In the future this should not be necessary. MRAM is designed to allow the programs and data to remain in the local memory, even when the power is off. Similarly, MRAM is expected to eliminate the delay we see today when we power our cell phones on and off.

Another key advantage of MRAM is that the technology is designed to allow the integration of multiple memory options within a chip. This can help to eliminate the need and expense of multiple memories, while enabling reduced equipment size and the ability to offer consumers new, cost-effective memory-based functions and applications in tomorrow's "smart" products.

"Wireless equipment providers require high-performance 'data crunching' memory and non-volatile storage which retains information when power is removed. MRAM is engineered to combine both functions into one technology at a fraction of the power. This is expected to improve battery life, to reduce system complexity and increase cost efficiencies," said Omid Tahernia, vice president and general manager, Wireless Communications Division at Motorola. "In addition, unlike known FeRAM (ferro-electric) technologies, MRAM has a non-destructive read which is designed to significantly increase endurance since re-writes are not required."

In addition to wireless, networking and digital consumer products, MRAM's benefits also extend to transportation. According to Paul Grimme, vice president and general manager, Advanced Vehicle Systems Division at Motorola, "We are excited about MRAM's potential to supply the critical memory requirements of our automotive systems. Electronics in future 'smart cars' will require ever growing amounts of fast, but cost-effective memories that are ideally non-volatile and capable of large numbers of read and write cycles. We expect that MRAM can eventually offer a cost-effective, automotive solution based on a single technology for both small and large, volatile and nonvolatile memories that are part of the system today."

Sherry Garber, senior vice president, Semico Research Corp., is among industry analysts who predict that MRAM's fast read and write speed, combined with unlimited read and write cycles and cost advantages, has the potential to replace a large portion of today's existing memory technologies, including Flash and DRAM. According to preliminary 2000 data from Semico Research Corp., total memory revenues were $48 billion.

"The explosion of portable applications is driving the industry to seek and find revolutionary memory solutions," said Garber. "MRAM clearly looks like a frontrunner and Motorola looks to be well positioned on the front lines, with its leadership in MRAM technology."

The memory successfully demonstrated by Motorola is a 256kb nonvolatile MRAM based on a memory cell defined by a single transistor (1T) and a single Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ) with read and write cycles of less than 50ns. The memory organization is 16k x 16, and the measured read power consumption is 24mW at 3 volts. This structure provides an extremely cost competitive memory. The fast read and write speed combined with virtually unlimited read and write cycles and competitive cost could enable MRAM to replace existing memory technologies including Flash, DRAM, and all but the fastest SRAM.

As the world's #1 producer of embedded processors, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector offers multiple DigitalDNA™ technologies which enable its customers to create "smart" products and new business opportunities in the networking and computing, wireless communications, transportation, and home networking markets. Motorola's worldwide semiconductor sales were $7.9 billion (USD) in 2000. http://www.motorola.com/semiconductors/

Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) is a global leader in providing integrated communications solutions and embedded electronic solutions. Sales in 2000 were $37.6 billion (USD).

MOTOROLA, the Stylized M Logo and all other trademarks indicated as such herein are trademarks of Motorola, Inc. ® Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM. Off. ©2001 Motorola, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

SOURCE Motorola Labs

CONTACT: Angela Hatfield of Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector, DigitalDNA Laboratories, 480-413-4260, fax, 480-413-4450, angie.hatfield@motorola.com; or Anne Stuessy of Motorola Labs, 847-538-6192, fax, 847-576-7653, anne.stuessy@motorola.com/