If you learned networking sometime in the 2000s, there is a good chance you first met NVRAM inside a Cisco router.
The explanation was wonderfully simple.
RAM held the running configuration.
NVRAM held the startup configuration.
Turn the router off, RAM forgets what it was doing. Turn it back on, the configuration stored in NVRAM is still there.
That basic explanation has not suddenly become wrong. Cisco documentation still describes the running configuration as being stored in RAM and, on most platforms, the startup configuration being stored in nonvolatile random access memory. (Cisco)
Cisco IOS configuration file documentation
But NVRAM has become a much more interesting subject than simply remembering a router configuration.
NVRAM Was Always About One Useful Idea
NVRAM stands for Non Volatile Random Access Memory.
The important part is "non volatile".
Normal DRAM is extremely fast, but it needs electricity to retain information. Switch the power off and the contents disappear.
Storage such as SSDs does the opposite. It remembers information without power, but traditionally sits further away from the processor and behaves differently from working memory.
NVRAM sits somewhere inside that conversation.
The dream is obvious.
What if memory could be fast, durable and still remember what it contained when the power disappeared?
That question has produced several different memory technologies.
And this is where the NVRAM story becomes much more interesting than the version many of us learned in networking class.
MRAM Is Becoming Real Technology
One of the strongest examples is MRAM, or Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory.
Instead of relying on electrical charge in the same way as conventional memory, MRAM stores information using magnetic states.
This is no longer just an experimental technology.
A 2024 review in Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering noted that spin transfer torque MRAM, usually called STT MRAM, is increasingly being used as embedded nonvolatile memory and is replacing embedded Flash for some advanced semiconductor applications.
The researchers also identified future opportunities for MRAM as working memory and potentially even processor cache. (Nature)
Nature review of STT MRAM technology
That is considerably more ambitious than storing a few kilobytes of router configuration.
Then There Is FeRAM
Another approach is Ferroelectric RAM, or FeRAM.
In June 2026, French research institute CEA Leti announced that it had demonstrated FeRAM at the 22 nanometre manufacturing node using a 3D capacitor design.
The researchers say the technology could provide denser and more energy efficient memory for applications including edge AI, high performance computing and IoT systems. (CEA/Recherche et innovation)
CEA Leti's 2026 FeRAM development
And suddenly the discussion around nonvolatile memory starts sounding very different.
It is no longer:
Can my router remember its configuration after a reboot?
It becomes:
Can a computer keep useful working information closer to the processor without constantly moving everything between storage and volatile memory?
That matters a lot when the workload is AI.
AI Has Made Memory Interesting Again
AI computing has an enormous appetite for memory.
Moving data between processors and memory consumes time and energy. The faster AI systems become, the more obvious this problem becomes.
That is why researchers are exploring technologies such as MRAM, FeRAM, ReRAM and other forms of persistent memory.
The goal is not necessarily to replace DRAM or SSDs tomorrow.
Instead, different types of nonvolatile memory could appear in places where their particular characteristics make sense.
MRAM could replace embedded Flash.
Other technologies could become useful for low power devices.
Future forms of persistent memory could potentially sit much closer to computation.
Even MRAM itself is continuing to evolve. Researchers are already investigating technologies such as spin orbit torque MRAM, or SOT MRAM, with the aim of improving speed and endurance further. (Nature)
So What Happened to the NVRAM We Learned About?
It never really disappeared.
The terminology just became more complicated.
Even Cisco's own architecture evolved. Older networking explanations often made NVRAM sound like one specific physical component containing startup-config.
Modern Cisco platforms can be more flexible. Cisco documentation notes that some systems can store the startup configuration in another file system, although nvram:startup-config remains an important logical reference. (Cisco)
The concept is what survived.
Memory that does not forget when electricity disappears remains extremely useful.
We used to care about it because we wanted a router to remember:
hostname Router1
interface GigabitEthernet0/1
ip address ...Today, researchers are asking whether similar nonvolatile principles can help build faster and more energy efficient computing systems.
Including systems running AI.
That is quite a career change for something many of us first encountered while studying for a networking exam.
The Funny Part
Technology sometimes does this.
A term becomes familiar enough that we stop paying attention to it.
NVRAM sounded like old networking vocabulary.
Then computing changed around it.
The next generation of nonvolatile memory may not look anything like the little block of router memory we learned about years ago.
But the original idea remains surprisingly relevant:
Sometimes the most useful memory is the memory that refuses to forget.
