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Aerospace and military applications are therefore the ideal target for NML tech-
nology. In these fields there is an always increasing demand for radiation hard,
heat resistant processing units that must work in hostile environments. With
CMOS technology it is very dicult to match all of aforementioned characteris-
tics, because circuits can be damaged by radiations. NML devices are the perfect
solution to match these fields necessities. Moreover, the NML logic-in-memory
ability paves the way for “on the flight” circuit reconfigurability that could
enhance space and military applications with re-programmable hardware and
run-time adaptive functionality. This feature enables the possibility to change
the function or to repair part of the system if something went wrong.
Embedded Sensors in Remote Zones.
One of the main characteristics
offered by NML technology, the zero stand-by power consumption, can be
exploited to built intelligent sensor stations in remote zones. In this kind of
systems it is quite common to have circuits that need to operate for a limited
period of time, then they have to spent the rest of the time in stand-by mode.
These kind of systems are actually used in many applications; one of these is
the environmental monitoring in remote zones such mountains peaks or buoys
placed in the ocean, which detect the rate of pollution. The use of NML technol-
ogy can give a great advantage compared to the devices actually used, mainly
thanks to the zero stand-by power consumption, but also thanks to its resistance
to extreme environmental conditions.
Automotive.
The resistance to extreme environments can also be useful in
automotive applications. It is well known that electronic components that must
be placed near the mechanical parts of a car, like the engine, are exposed to
a great deal of stress. This stress comes under many forms, heat, vibrations,
voltage spikes, straining the resistance of CMOS circuits to their limits. Clearly
the use of NML logic can represent a substantial improvement to the reliability
of electronic circuits applied to the automotive field.
Integration with Other Magnetic Systems.
While here magnets are used
to build logic circuits, magnetic devices are commonly employed in many fields
as sensors and actuators, not to mention as memory devices. Hard-disks are the
leading devices for mass data storage, and in recent years Magnetic RAMs were
also developed. These memories are gaining an increasing interest for their promi-
nent features [
60
,
61
], like radiation resistance, high speed, non-volatile nature,
heat resistance and nearly-unlimited endurance. Since all these devices share
the same magnetic nature, it is possible to imagine the merging logic devices
and MRAM together. This is particularly interesting because memory perfor-
mance is fast becoming the key bottleneck that limits system performance, and
critical applications are becoming more data-dependent, and less computation-
dependent. Instant-on will be a requirement for a lot of applications. Merging
NML circuits and MRAM can be a solution to this problem, a further way to
exploit the logic-in-memory principle.
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