You can buy FRAM (Ferroelectric RAM) which are effectively the same thing just in smaller package. But I have seen them only about few kB. However the amount of R/W operations is effectively unlimited,
You can get them up to 16Mb/2MB. Which is 1/128 what NOR flash comes in for a similar price and package. Certainly a trade.
I think MRAM is the future though.
It is the future, and has been the future for almost 40 years already! I bet that's what the hoverboards will use inside their microcontrollers — gotta drive those portable fusion reactors reliably!
I though bubble memory was the future. Dammit, I missed another memo.
Phase-change memory is the most advanced high-endurance nvram, with Intel and Micron's XPoint being the most advanced to have hit production. If it had stuck around long enough for the RAMpocalypse, they'd probably sell out their production capacity.
Only if Flash stagnates as a technology. I suspect it will in the next 5 years due to reliability but you never know.
One of our product use msp430 FRAM version to store the motor position, due to high sampling rate, if we use flash we would burn through flash in no time. The FRAM is really neat.
FRAM is handy for replacement N64 Controller Paks where the capacity only needs to be 256Kbit / 32 KB, such as the FM28V020-SG used in this project:
Yes, although (like some flash technology) read cycles are slower than write cycles, and it takes longer to read a 0 bit and than 1 bit (or vice versa).