Well, I for one was certainly surprised to hear that the folks at Menta SAS and LIRMM have just announced the tape-out of the world's first MRAM-based FPGA. They say that this device includes special patent-protected circuitry enabling the compact integration of MRAM and embedded-FPGA solutions.

First a little background... The Montpellier Laboratory of Informatics, Robotics, and Microelectronics (LIRMM in French) is a cross-faculty research entity of the University of Montpellier 2 (UM2) and the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) Its activities include design and verification of integrated, mobile and communicating systems, agent-based modeling of complex systems, as well as research on algorithms, bioinformatics, human-machine interaction and robotics.

Menta SAS is a privately held company based in Montpellier (France). The company provides embedded-FPGA (eFPGA) technology for SoC (System on Chip), ASIC, or SiP (System in Package) designs, from EDA tools to IP generation. Based on years of research at LIRMM, Menta’s programmable logic fabric is based on scalable, customizable, easily programmable architecture that was created to provide programmability for next generation ASIC design that incorporates the benefits of FPGA design flexibility.

Based on Menta’s eFPGA Core™ programmable logic architecture and on CEA-LETI and CROCUS magnetic technology, this first member of a family of MRAM-based FPGAs,is manufactured in CMOS 130 nm with magnetic junction in 120 nm and provides capacity of 1,444 LUT4, equivalent to approximately 20K logic gates.

Developed in joint collaboration with Microelectronic department of LIRMM in the frame of SPIN [the large scale initiative for Spintronics devices supported by the French National Research Agency (ANR)], this tapeout validates the possibility to stack MRAM technology over traditional CMOS logic and introduces to the market a new type of robust non-volatile FPGA. Market potential of MRAM-based FPGA is being validated for defense, aerospace, automotive and consumer applications.

"This world first MRAM-based FPGA demonstrates the versatility of our eFPGA Core technology," stated Laurent Rougé, Menta founder and CEO. "Taping out this first MRAM-based FPGA device confirms our intent to build a product strategy that leverages and complements our IP business. One of the key benefits of developing an FPGA with MRAM technology, is that is enables high-density non-volatile FPGA based on leading edge CMOS technology nodes, unlike traditional Flash-based approaches only available on mature CMOS processes."

Pr Lionel Torres, in charge of the MRAM design project at LIRMM, claims that "MRAM-based FPGA proposes better versatility with partial or dynamic re-configurability capabilities, instant on/off total or partial energy saving."

About Menta‘s eFPGA Core IP
Menta’s eFPGA Core IP is a programmable logic architecture IP core that leverages Menta’s proprietary ultra-compact architecture to provide the SoC designer with post-fabrication flexibility at near ASIC performance. The Menta eFPGA Core IP is customizable so a domain specific-FPGA (dsFPGA) can be used in a SoC with target applications features, and benefits in terms of area, power consumption and speed. The eFPGA Programmer tool suite configures the core and supports the tools used to map and place and route the design.

Availability
Menta expects sample of MRAM-based FPGA in Q3 2010. MRAM-based FPGA will be supported with Menta eFPGA Programmer® tool suite. To learn more, contact Menta at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Questions
Actually, I do have a few questions. For example, are the MRAM cells used only for the configuration bits, or are they also used to replace blocks of on-chip RAM, maybe even on-chip register bits? Also, how susceptible (or immune) are these MRAM cells to radiation effects as compared to SRAM cells implemented at the same technology node. Also how many times can these MRAM cells be written to (infinite like SRAM or limited like Flash)? When I discover more I shall report back in a future blog...