Every so often an investor will ask The Memory Guy: “Why does MRAM only sell into niche markets?”
These questions aren’t only about MRAM — some ask about ReRAM, FRAM, or PCM as well. It’s the same question for all of them. The answer is pretty simple: They’re expensive. All of these technologies command prices per gigabyte that are over 100 times that of DRAM and NAND flash.
Some argue that their performance is better, so they should sell well anyway. I always counter with the argument that cell phones used to be designed using NOR flash and SRAM, both of which perform infinitely better than NAND flash and DRAM. Yet, with the adoption of smartphones, the entire industry shifted to a NAND + DRAM combination. This was simply because of cost.
Certain applications care more about performance than they do about cost, and these are the few that will pay for an emerging memory technology. Space is a good example. Spacecraft have very challenging requirements that restrict several aspects of the chips within: Space, power, heat dissipation, weight, and radiation, to name a few. Radiation is a big consideration, since there’s a lot of radiation in space, and lead shielding adds considerable weight to the spacecraft. This sort of issue is the reason for the enormous cost of spacecraft. There aren’t many parts sold into this market, though, and there aren’t many markets that are as insensitive to cost as spacecraft are.
Will this scenario ever change? It should, as soon as other memory technologies stop scaling. This is already happening to embedded NOR flash, and it’s about to happen with embedded SRAM. Over the next few years advanced processes will all support MRAM or ReRAM. DRAM and NAND flash will take much longer to displace.
All of this is explained in great depth in the emerging memory report Emerging Memories Branch Out, jointly authored by Objective Analysis and Coughlin Associates. The report provides significant detail about the technologies, the markets, and the companies involved. It’s a big report, and it can be purchased for immediate download on the Objective Analysis website.