Boffins working for the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Germany have worked out a method of spin-torque switching of a nanomagnet. The ballistic switching could allow for increased speeds in future non-volatile magnetic memories.

Dr. Hans Werner Schumacher from the PTB Working Group said current high-speed memories, such as Dynamic Static Random Access Memory (DRAM) and Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) need constant power in order to retain memories. While using a magnetic memory chip known as Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM) doesn’t need it, conventional spin-torque system limits the MRAM clock speed.

However, the experiments have managed to speed MRAM up by five times, which means that it can achieve write clock rates well above 1 GHz.

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