NEC Develops New Flip-Flops, Not What You Think
Personally, I can’t stand the sound of someone wearing flip-flops but I might like those from NEC. These are actually new circuit components that flip or flop a signal. Digital bits that are on or off are the basis of computing, at least on a very basic level. So what’s different about the NEC circuit? The magnetic bits can be flipped or flopped and stay in that state even when there’s no power available to the circuit. The Register sums it up best as this development offers the “basis for a system-on-a-chip part that can be completely powered down yet still retain data.”
Today we can put circuits and memory in a low-power sleep state to retain data, but even at a trickle, that still uses some juice. If we can do eventually do the same for circuits with no power, I’m all for it. Unless NEC adds that annoying “flippy-floppy” sound, that is.
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Actually it’s exactly what I thought…..but then I have a degree in Electronics Engineering Technology!
Flip flops can be uses as primitive memory storage devices. The problem is it takes ONE flipflop per bit. The good thing is now they are much smaller than when I took the class covering it and if NEC figured out how to keep them on, then it would be useful with Systems on a Chip or SOC. It may only be useful for storing BIOS info.
OT: Absolutely agree about not standing the sound of “flip-flops”. I’ll take fingernails on a chalk board any day.
How does this differ from the implementation of existing non-volatile RAM (like SD cards, USB keys)? I’m not asking out of snarkiness, I’m actually curious, and would like to learn to fully appreciate this development.
eggnorinse: Existing non-volatile RAM is typically based on Flash memory. There are two types of Flash: NAND and NOR flash. High capacity devices (like SD cards, etc.) use NAND Flash, which has some limitations. Notably, these devices can’t be used for code execution in place, and when writing to Flash an entire sector must be rewritten at once. NOR removes some of those limitations, but it’s much more expensive. Regardless of the type, it takes a lot of time to rewrite Flash memory, and it can’t be rewritten an unlimited number of times. It also doesn’t read as fast as RAM.
This kind of MRAM will be used as a replacement for SRAM, which is a type of RAM that is used in CPUs for cache and in embedded devices. Unlike SDRAM, SRAM doesn’t need a clock supplied to keep “refreshing” the contents of memory, but it does require power to be applied to retain data. MRAM promises to combine the speed of SRAM with the non-volatility of Flash, which will lead to new CPUs which can be completely stopped in a low-power state (real time clock only) and resume instantly. Initially this will be used for embedded applications, but eventually will replace the cache memory in your CPU to provide an ultra-low-power snooze mode for your smartphone, MID, or computer where it can still wake instantly to respond to user input or messages.
I don’t think this will replace Flash memory any time soon, since NAND Flash is cheap in capacity. It would be interesting to see MRAM displace Flash, but it will need to beat Flash on cost to accomplish this.