Magnetic Computer Memory: Better, Faster, Stronger

Synopsis

While magnetic computer memory dominated the nascent stages of the computing industry, it was quickly supplanted by solid-state, transistor-based, dynamic random-access memory (RAM) in the mid 1970s, relegating magnetic architectures to mass storage media. Now, cheap flash storage drives are again reducing magnetic memory’s relevance in consumer electronics. However, recent discoveries allowing the reading and writing of magnetic bits not with magnetic fields, but with currents, have led to a renewed academic and commercial interest in memory of this type. One such design, spin-transfer torque magnetic random access memory (STT-M)RAM, is especially exciting, promising to combine the density and low-cost of dynamic RAM, the performance of static RAM, and the non-volatility of hard disk drives.

This talk will provide an introduction to the history of computer memory, and a description of the form and function of the magnetic architectures that have the potential to disrupt the modern semiconductor-based market. I will discuss the theory upon which these designs are built, and the problems with the current market offerings of MRAM. I will present some of the work of the Physics of Functional Materials Lab which provides a method to address these shortcomings and manufacture novel designs of general computer memory.