"giant magnetoresistive effect" in thin-film structures. 1989 — Pohm and Daughton left Honeywell to form Nonvolatile Electronics, Inc. (later renamed to NVE Corp.) sublicensing the MRAM technology they have created. 1995 — Motorola (later to become Freescale Semiconductor, and subsequently NXP Semiconductors) initiates work on MRAM development 1996 — Spin torque transfer is proposed 1998 — Motorola develops 256Kb MRAM test chip. 2000 — IBM and Infineon established a joint MRAM development program. 2000 — Spintec laboratory's first Spin-Torque Transfer patent. 2002 NVE announces technology exchange with Cypress Semiconductor. Toggle patent granted to Motorola 2003 — A 128 kbit MRAM chip was introduced, manufactured with a 180 nm lithographic process 2004 June — Infineon unveiled a 16-Mbit prototype, manufactured with a 180 nm lithographic process September — MRAM becomes a standard product offering at Freescale. October — Taiwan developers of MRAM tape out 1 Mbit parts at TSMC. October — Micron drops MRAM, mulls other memories. December — TSMC, NEC and Toshiba describe novel MRAM cells. December — Renesas Technology promotes a high performance, high-reliability MRAM technology. Spintech laboratory's first observation of Thermal Assisted Switching (TAS) as MRAM approach. Crocus Technology is founded; the company is a developer of second-generation MRAM 2005 January — Cypress Semiconductor samples MRAM, using NVE IP. March — Cypress to Sell MRAM Subsidiary. June — Honeywell posts data sheet for 1-Mbit rad-hard MRAM using a 150 nm lithographic process. August — MRAM record: memory cell runs at 2 GHz. November — Renesas Technology and Grandis collaborate on development of 65 nm MRAM employing spin torque transfer (STT). November — NVE receives an SBIR grant to research cryptographic tamper-responsive memory. December — Sony announced the first lab-produced spin-torque-transfer MRAM, which utilizes a spin-polarized current through the tunneling magnetoresistance layer to write data. This method consumes less power and is more scalable than conventional MRAM. With further advances in materials, this process should allow for densities higher than those possible in DRAM. December — Freescale Semiconductor Inc. demonstrates an MRAM that uses magnesium oxide, rather than an aluminum oxide, allowing for a thinner insulating tunnel barrier and improved bit resistance during the write cycle, thereby reducing the required write current. Spintec laboratory gives Crocus Technology exclusive license on its patents. 2006 February — Toshiba and NEC announced a 16 Mbit MRAM chip with a new "power-forking" design. It achieves a transfer rate of 200 Mbit/s, with a