34 ns cycle time, the best performance of any MRAM chip. It also boasts the smallest physical size in its class — 78.5 square millimeters — and the low voltage requirement of 1.8 volts. July — On July 10, Austin Texas — Freescale Semiconductor begins marketing a 4-Mbit MRAM chip, which sells for approximately $25.00 per chip. 2007 R&D moving to spin transfer torque RAM (SPRAM) February — Tohoku University and Hitachi developed a prototype 2-Mbit non-volatile RAM chip employing spin-transfer torque switching. August — "IBM, TDK Partner In Magnetic Memory Research on Spin Transfer Torque Switching" IBM and TDK to lower the cost and boost performance of MRAM to hopefully release a product to market. November — Toshiba applied and proved the spin-transfer torque switching with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy MTJ device. November — NEC develops world's fastest SRAM-compatible MRAM with operation speed of 250 MHz. 2008 Japanese satellite, SpriteSat, to use Freescale MRAM to replace SRAM and FLASH components June — Samsung and Hynix become partner on STT-MRAM June — Freescale spins off MRAM operations as new company Everspin August — Scientists in Germany have developed next-generation MRAM that is said to operate as fast as fundamental performance limits allow, with write cycles under 1 nanosecond. November — Everspin announces BGA packages, product family from 256Kb to 4Mb 2009 June — Hitachi and Tohoku University demonstrated a 32-Mbit spin-transfer torque RAM (SPRAM). June — Crocus Technology and Tower Semiconductor announce deal to port Crocus' MRAM process technology to Tower's manufacturing environment November — Everspin releases SPI MRAM product family and ships first embedded MRAM samples 2010 April — Everspin releases 16Mb density June — Hitachi and Tohoku Univ announce Multi-level SPRAM 2011 March — PTB, Germany, announces below 500 ps (2Gbit/s) write cycle 2012 November — Chandler, Arizona, USA, Everspin debuts 64Mb ST-MRAM on a 90 nm process. December — A team from University of California, Los Angeles presents voltage-controlled MRAM at IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting. 2013 November — Buffalo Technology and Everspin announce a new industrial SATA III SSD that incorporates Everspin's Spin-Torque MRAM (ST-MRAM) as cache memory. 2014 January — Researchers announce the ability to control the magnetic properties of core/shell antiferromagnetic nanoparticles using only temperature and magnetic field changes. October — Everspin partners with GlobalFoundries to produce ST-MRAM on 300 mm wafers. 2016 April — Samsung's semiconductor chief Kim Ki-nam says Samsung is developing an