Programmable computing with a single magnetoresistive element

Abstract

The development of transistor-based integrated circuits for modern computing is a story of great success. However, the proved concept for enhancing computational power by continuous miniaturization is approaching its fundamental limits. Alternative approaches consider logic elements that are reconfigurable at run-time to overcome the rigid architecture of the present hardware systems¹. Implementation of parallel algorithms on such ‘chameleon’ processors has the potential to yield a dramatic increase of computational speed, competitive with that of supercomputers². Owing to their functional flexibility, ‘chameleon’ processors can be readily optimized with respect to any computer application. In conventional microprocessors, information must be transferred to a memory to prevent it from getting lost, because electrically processed information is volatile. Therefore the computational performance can be improved if the logic gate is additionally capable of storing the output. Here we describe a simple hardware concept for a programmable logic element that is based on a single magnetic random access memory (MRAM^3,4) cell. It combines the inherent advantage of a non-volatile output with flexible functionality which can be selected at run-time to operate as an AND, OR, NAND or NOR gate.