BEIJING, July 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Freescale Semiconductor annoucned on Monday availability of the world's first magneto-resistive random access memory (MRAM) of its kind, winning the race to commercialize a technology that has until now been confined to the R&D labs of various firms.

    The Austin, Texas-based company£¬ has begun the production and sales of MRAM in volume quantities. The debut chip, named MR2A16A, is a 4 Mbit (512 KB) device that offers a combination of features and performance previously available only in separate memory technologies.

    MRAM is faster than most other types of computer memory. Freescale's chip promises to read or write data in 35 nanoseconds. In addition, MRAM can hold data even after the computer is turned off. Proponents say it could replace both flash memory, used inside cell phones and cameras, and DRAM, employed inside computers to shuttle data to the processor.

    Magnetoresistive Ram will enable the development of new classes of electronic devices by allowing for smaller form factors, lower cost, greater power consumption and enhanced system performance.

    Freescale said that the memory would find applications in gaming, networking, security and data storage.

    MRAM has been in development since the 1990s and Saied Tehrani, director of MRAM technology with Freescale, says that Freescale has been working to bring it to memory chips for nearly 10 years from their laboratories in Austin, Texas.

    Freescale's MR2A16A chips, however, aren't cheap. The 4-megabit part now shipping costs $25 at wholesale and is available in low volumes only.

    Freescale is Motorola's former chip unit and now the No. 3 U.S. semiconductor company. Enditem

    (Agencies)