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MRAM is non-volatile memory that stores data magnetically rather than as an electric charge. It combines magnetic materials with conventional silicon circuitry to provide the non-volatility of Flash-memory but at a much higher speed.

Freescale believes that the technology could enable new classes of electronic products offering 'dramatic advances' in size, cost, power consumption and system performance.

'The commercial launch of the industry's first MRAM product is a major milestone made possible by the pioneering research of Freescale

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technologists,' said Sumit Sadana, the company's chief technology officer. 'It underscores our commitment to deliver breakthrough technology to our customers to address real-world challenges.'

Freescale's first commercial MRAM product, the MR2A16A, is aimed at a variety of applications, including networking, security, data storage, gaming and printers. The part is engineered to be a single-component replacement for battery-backed SRAM units - static RAM typically used where small amounts of high-speed memory are required, such as CPU caches in computers.

On the downside, it provides just 4Mbits of storage capacity, so its consumer electronic applications are virtually nil, nor is it expected to offer the gigabyte-plus capacities of Flash-chips. Demand for flash currently outstrips supply, so there is little chance of any manufacturers switching capacity to make MRAM chips any time soon.

Its backers remain optimistic that recent advances - in February NEC and Toshiba unveiled a 16Mbit chip - will eventually lead to MRAM being a universal replacement for a variety of memory types, including Flash, SRAM, DRAM, EEPROM.