The business reasons get into cost. Flash memory is generally licensed technology, and suppliers pay for the privilege to use it. What if a new technology could provide more control and eliminate significant costs?

Several manufacturers have been working on Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) technology, but the concept promoted by Renesas and others to apply it to the insides of microcontrollers is new. Instead of selling commodity MRAM devices, Renesas intends to use MRAM to provide unified memory for MCUs. Yasushi Akao, general manager of the MCU business group at Renesas, put it best: "Nonvolatile memory is a must for MCU products, and we don’t want to rely on outside producers for flash."

MRAM delivers on these wishes. It allows designers to get rid of standby power while providing infinite write cycles and data retention. It combines the best features of flash and SRAM, allowing simpler, smaller MCU designs. By using homegrown MRAM technology, a supplier can eliminate IP costs associated with flash.

Suppliers are dialing M for MRAM, and it’s coming soon to an MCU near you. In the meantime, take a look at this issue’s articles on the latest in MCU and System-on-Chip (SoC) technology, with viewpoints from Cypress Semiconductor, Renesas, Delorie Software, Texas Instruments, and Digi International. Drop me a line at ddingee@opensystemsmedia.com if you would like to discuss destiny, MCUs, or any other interesting topics.