IBM integrates Everspin MRAM technology into its 5th-generation FlashCore Modules for improved enterprise storage performance.

IBM's fifth-generation FlashCore Modules (FCM5) employ Everspin magneto-resistive RAM (MRAM) instead of super-capacitors to protect against data loss during power failures. FCM5 drives are computational SSDs featuring hardware compression, deduplication, die striping, and cyber-attack detection. They use QLC (4 bits/cell) NAND with an SLC (1 bit/cell) incoming write zone, available in five raw capacity points: 6.6, 12.2, 26.4, 52.8, and 105.6 TB, with maximum effective compressed capacities of 19.8, 36.6, 79.2, 158.4, and 316.8 TB respectively.

MRAM stores bits in magnetic tunnel junctions rather than as charge levels. Unlike NAND flash, MRAM is non-volatile, offers DRAM-class access speeds measured in tens of nanoseconds, is byte-addressable, and features very high endurance. At the SNIA Developer Conference in San Jose in September, Everspin fellow Steffen Hellmold presented on MRAM's applications in data storage, highlighting its use as an ideal write buffer and cache for small-write applications. The presentation demonstrated how MRAM serves this function in IBM's FCM5 drives.

Because MRAM retains data through power loss, IBM can store write consistency metadata in MRAM instead of relying on super-capacitors to write that data to NAND during power failures. This approach eliminates the need for the physical space previously occupied by super-capacitors, allowing IBM to populate FCM5 boards with additional NAND chips and increase overall capacity.

Evidence of this integration appears on page 21 of the IBM FlashCore Module (FCM) Product Guide Redbook, which includes a board illustration showing an Everspin chip positioned on the top right-hand side above the AMD processor chip. IBM has used several hundred megabytes of Everspin MRAM inside FlashCore Modules for several years as a small, non-volatile write cache and journal. In April 2024, Everspin announced that IBM had selected its PERSYST EMD4E001G 1 Gb STT-MRAM chip for power-loss data protection in FlashCore Module 4 drives. The earlier FCM3 generation used up to 128 MB of Toggle MRAM for this purpose.

Everspin supplies MRAM to more than 2,000 customers and has shipped over 200 million chips during its 20 years in production. Dell and LSI/Avago are among the companies using Everspin MRAM in some RAID controllers. Steffen Hellmold is a fellow at Everspin and director at Cerabyte, an advanced archival technology developer; he previously served as Everspin's VP for marketing from 2011 to 2013.