IBM, Stanford put new spin on chip research

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Glad to see more emphasis on spintronics

It is good to hear that the spintronic field is getting more attention and funding.

You and your readers should also be made aware that much has already been accomplished in this area by a small company, Integrated MagnetoElectronics (IME). They have been researching memories (SpinRAM?) based on giant magnetoresistance (GMR) and GMR-based logic (Transpinnor ?).

The IME transpinnor is the spintronic analog of the transistor in semiconductor circuits. It can be used for analog amplification and it has the thresholds and non-linearities to allow it to be used as a digital component. The transpinnor has very good characteristics for use as a logic element in computer architectures. It has inherent electrical decoupling between input and output, with the important consequence that switching noise is expected to be three orders of magnitude smaller in GMR transpinnor circuits than in CMOS circuits; it can function as a storage element as well as a logic element and it is inherently resistant to radiation. It will be particularly useful for building pipelined system architectures and systems which require inherent non-volatility. An added plus is the ability of the transpinnor to be used as both a transmission line transmitter and receiver, thereby allowing information transfer between semiconductor and spintronic subsystems. IME has a set of patents covering the use of the transpinnor.

If anywhere near the same kind of funding is put behind the transpinnor and comparable devices as has been devoted to the transistor, we will see rapid advances in the application of spintronics to real problems.

Steve Nuspl
Nuspl@ieee.org

Posted by: nuspl   Posted on: 04/27/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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