Business description of Everspin-Technologies-Inc from last 10-k form

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PART I

Item 1. Business.

Overview

We are the leading provider of magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) products. Our MRAM products offer the persistence of non-volatile memory, a type of memory that retains information even in the absence of power, with the speed and endurance of random access memory (RAM), and enable the protection of mission critical data particularly in the event of power interruption or failure. Our MRAM products allow our customers in the industrial, automotive and transportation, and enterprise storage markets to design high performance, power efficient and reliable systems without the need for bulky batteries or capacitors. We are the only provider of commercially available MRAM solutions, and over the past eight years we have shipped over 60 million MRAM units.

Our MRAM technology, unlike traditional semiconductor memory technologies, stores data as a magnetic state rather than an electrical charge, and is offered as either a discrete or embedded solution. Our products read and write data at speeds on par with most dynamic RAM (DRAM) and static RAM (SRAM). Our products offer the non-volatility of flash memory but with significantly superior endurance. We offer our MRAM products with different densities and interfaces to address the various needs of our customers. Our lower-density MRAM products, which we define as having bit densities from 128kb to 16Mb, offer write-speeds on par with SRAM, with virtually unlimited endurance. Our higher density products, which we define as having bit densities at or greater than 64Mb, offer write-speeds on par with DRAM and have superior endurance compared to most other non-volatile memory technologies.

Our lower-density products are optimized for use in industrial, and automotive and transportation applications, while our higher-density products are optimized for use in enterprise storage applications. In the enterprise storage market, we collaborate with industry-leading memory controller companies to enable compatibility of their controllers with our MRAM products, facilitating the adoption of our solutions into our customers’ existing end products. We have over 600 customers worldwide, including Honeywell, ifm, Nikkiso and Siemens in the industrial market, Airbus and Hyundai Mobis in the automotive and transportation market, and Broadcom, Dell, IBM and Lenovo in the enterprise storage market. We sell our products directly and through our established distribution channel to industry-leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and original design manufacturers (ODMs)

We leverage both internal and outsourced manufacturing capabilities to produce our MRAM products. We purchase industry-standard complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) wafers from semiconductor foundries and complete the processing of our products by inserting our magnetic-bit technology at our 200mm fabrication facility in Chandler, Arizona. We have entered into a manufacturing agreement with GLOBALFOUNDRIES for 300mm high-volume production of our higher-density products. We believe our strategic relationship with GLOBALFOUNDRIES accelerates the development of our MRAM solutions, provides us with leading-edge outsourced manufacturing capabilities, and enables us to operate a variable cost financial model. In addition, GLOBALFOUNDRIES has the ability to embed our technology in its products for sale to its customers, from which we would earn licensing or royalty revenue.

For the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015, and 2014 we recorded revenue of $27.1 million, $26.5 million, $24.9 million, gross margin of 54.3%, 52.7%, and 52.6%, and a net loss of $16.7 million, $18.2 million, and $10.2 million, respectively. As of December 31, 2016, we had 90 employees, more than half of whom are engaged in research and development. Our headquarters are located in Chandler, Arizona. Our principal design center is in Austin, Texas, and we have additional sales operations in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions.