loading
loading
IBM using Everspin MRAM in 5th gen FlashCore Modules IBM’s gen 5 FlashCore Modules use Everspin MRAM instead of capacitors to protect against data loss from power failures. FlashCore Modules (FCMs) are IBM’s proprietary SSDs, with the gen 5 version being computational SSDs as they feature hardware compression, deduplication, die striping, and cyber-attack detection. The FCM5 uses QLC (4 bits/cell) NAND with an SLC (1 bit/cell) incoming write zone. There are five FCM5 raw capacity points; 6.6, 12.2, 26.4, 52.8 and 105.6 TB, with the maximum effective compressed capacities being 19.8, 36.6, 79.2, 158.4 and 316.8 TB. Magneto-resistive RAM (MRAM) stores bits in magnetic tunnel junctions rather than as charge levels, and is non-volatile like NAND, has DRAM-class access speed (10s of nanoseconds), is byte-addressable, and has very high endurance, unlike NAND. Everspin supplies a range of MRAM chips and an Everspin MRAM presentation at the SNIA Developer Conference in San Jose in September (SDC26) by Steffen Hellmold included this slide; Hellmold said MRAM is an ideal write buffer or cache for small written in data storage applications, and a slide showed it being used in this way in IBM’s FCM5 drives. Because it’s non-volatile, the drives don’t need to use super-capacitors to write consistency data to NAND if there’s a power loss. Instead this metadata is held in MRAM and persists through any power loss. IBM can reclaim the space that would have been needed for the SuperCaps and populate it with more NAND chips, increasing capacity. There was an indication the AIBM was using Everspin MRAM in an FCM5 board illustration on page 21 of the Redbook entitled IBM FlashCore Module (FCM) Product Guide. This shows an Everspin chip on the board's top right-hand side above the big AMD processor chip. We understand that IBM has used a few hundred megabytes of Everspin MRAM inside FCMs for several years as a small, non-volatile write cache and journal. In April 2024 Everspin announced that IBM chose its PERSYST EMD4E001G 1 Gb STT-MRAM chip product in its FlashCore Module 4 drives, specifically for data protection on power loss. Prior FCM3s used up to 128 MB of Toggle MRAM for that purpose. Bootnote Everspin has more than 2,000 customers for its MRAM products which have been in production for 20 years with more than 200 million chips shipped. We understand Dell and LSI/Avago use Everspin in some RAID-controllers. Steffen Hellmold is a fellow at Everspin and also director at advanced archival technology developer Cerabyte. He was previously Everspin's VP for marketing in the 2011-2013 period.
document fetched 2026-10-06 02:55 · canonical https://blocksandfiles.com/flash/2026/10/05/ibm-using-everspin-mram-in-5th-gen-flashcore-modules/5300966