Industry Expert Blogs

Emerging memories likely will find high-volume markets in embedded applications replacing NOR flash for storing code in MCUs and ASICs.

“At some point the door is going to close on NOR because of scaling issues, and all MCU and ASIC makers and their logic foundries will need a new non-volatile memory technology for code storage--whether it will be at 40nm or 14nm may depend on the foundry’s logic process,” said Jim Handy, analyst at Objective Analysis, who will give a market overview in the emerging memory program at Semicon West.

The challenge is that until the new memory technologies reach volume production, they will be more expensive. MRAM has an advantage because Everspin has been selling standalone chips for temporary immediate storage, Handy said.