April 2015

Researchers from France's Universite Paris-Sud and the CEA institute discovered that the probabilistic nature of Spin-Torque MRAM (STT-MRAM) devices can be used to create synapses-like neural system - effectively to create low-power devices that mimic the human's brain method of operation.

MRAM cells (or MTJs) store data using electrons magnetic spin, which is a stochastic switching type of device - that needs to apply a current for a long-enough time to make sure the information changed as you wish. In this new suggestion, you take advantage of the stochastic switching and apply current for a short time - which can be used to make the device learn progressively. This effectively means that MTJs can be "trained" to learn new information.

The Singapore's National Research Foundation (NRF) announced a new S$5 million ($3.7 million USD) fund to support Spintronics industry collaborations with research institutes in Singapore.

Last year the National University of Singapore together with Nanyang Technological University launched a new consortium (the Singapore Spintronics Consortium, or SG-SPIN), with an aim to encourage collaborative research partnerships between industry and the academia. The new $3.7 million fund will support existing and new SG-SPIN projects.