The fastest-yet magnetic version of a random access memory (MRAM) cell switches at a rate of 2 GHz, as good as or better than the fastest non-magnetic semiconductor memories and faster than static RAM (or SRAM) memories, currently the fastest memories.

The new version, developed by Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt researchers, uses a “ballistic bit addressing” scheme to overcome limitations of previous designs.

MRAM, which uses electron spin to store information and is non-volatile, has the potential to replace Flash, RAM and hard disks.