written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . september 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message crocus technology type private industry semiconductors founded 2006 headquarters grenoble france santa clara california key people dr. bertrand f. cambou chairman & ceo ken mc kay vp tech . development wayne godwin vp worldwide sales alain faburel vp security bu jean luc sentis vp worldwide operations douglas lee vp system strategy & corporate product development products general purpose and specialty memory chips and technology number of employees 50 website crocustechnology.com crocus technology founded in 2006 is a venture capital backed semiconductor startup company developing magnetoresistive random access memory mram technology . the company s products originated in a grenoble based spintec laboratory and its technology is licensed for stand alone and embedded chip applications . contents 1 history 2 products and technologies 3 patents 4 joint ventures 5 investors 6 references 7 external links history edit crocus technology was founded in grenoble in 2004 based on research at the spintec laboratory . 1 the company eventually moved its headquarters to santa clara california but retained its engineering base in grenoble . in 2011 the company opened an office in rousset france to develop and support secure products . products and technologies edit crocus technology supplies semiconductor memory devices . the company is also a licensor of magnetoresistive random access memory mram process and design technology to fabless semiconductor companies wafer foundries and integrated device manufacturers . target applications include storage telecommunications mobile devices and computer networking . crocus introduced the application of thermal assisted switching tas to mram technology . the technology addresses the problems of write selectivity power consumption and thermal stability that other mram products face . tas solves those problems mainly through temperature manipulation of the magnetic susceptibility in the memory cell . the company is working to merge tas technology with spin torque transfer technology for use with smaller feature size semiconductor processes . patents edit in intellectual property the company possesses 154 patents supporting its products . crocus also has a long term exclusive license to mram related intellectual property developed at spintec 2 cnrs and cea . joint ventures edit on june 22 2011 crocus announced a new technology called magnetic logic unit mlu architecture built on their tas technology . this technology can be used to make ultra secure functions such as smart cards identity cards sim cards and near field communications nfc tamper proof . the technology can operate at very high temperatures making it useful in automotive and industrial electronics . mlu has the potential to replace a variety of other memory technologies such as sram dram nand nor and otp . on may 17 2011 crocus announced a joint venture with rusnano a russian state owned technology investment fund . the new venture crocus nano electronics cne plans to invest us 125 million to build an advanced mram manufacturing plant in russia . 3 additional funding to a projected total of us 300 million will be used to expand capacity of the plant after it begins production . 4 5 on june 18 2009 crocus technology announced a partnership with integrated circuit specialty foundry tower semiconductor . as part of the deal both companies will dedicate special equipment in tower s factory and tower will fully manufacture crocus mram technology in its 200mm fab2 facility . tower took a 1.25 million equity position in crocus . 6 on october 6 2011 crocus technology announced that it had signed an agreement with ibm to co develop semiconductor technology in mram . 7 investors edit major investors include rusnano a russian government funded corporation that is aimed at commercializing developments in nanotechnology and cea investissement a company under the cea that specializes in seed technology companies . other investors include idinvest partners 8 cdc innovation 9 entreprises et patriomoine 10 nanodimension 11 sofinnova partners sofinnova ventures and ventech . references edit mark lapedus ee times . russia backs mram startup in 300m deal . may 17 2011 . retrieved october 24 2011 . spintec . eu who s who of data storage & memory technology . wide integrated technologies diffusion at university of exeter . retrieved july 14 2011 . lapedus mark and peter clarke . russia backs mram startup in 300m deal . ee times . may 17 2011 . retrieved july 14 2011 . bases daniel . russia secures new mram chip plant with investment . reuters . may 16 2011 . retrieved july 14 2011 . clark don . chip start up joins with russia in memory deal . the wall street journal . may 17 2011 . retrieved july 14 2011 . mark lapedus june 18 2009 . tower invests in crocus tips mram foundry deal . ee times . retrieved july 10 2013 . peter clarke edn . crocus signs ibm as mram partner . october 6 2011 . retrieved october 24 2011 . idinvest partners . 2011 . retrieved july 18 2011 . cdc innovation . 2011 . retrieved july 18 2011 . entreprises et patriomoine . 2011 . retrieved aug. 2 2011 . nanodimension . 2011 . retrieved july 20 2011 . external links edit official website additional articles from ee times retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title crocus technology & oldid 723537692 categories fabless semiconductor companiescomputer memory companiescompanies based in sunnyvale californiahidden categories articles with a promotional tone from september 2011all articles with a promotional tone navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main 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