Scientists at Arizona State University have created a new kind of solid state memory that they say is much cheaper and more efficient than flash. And crucially, because it uses a new kind of nanotechnology, storage capacities will be much higher than anything we have today, for a tenth of the cost.
The new memory is called programmable metallization cell (PMC) and one terabyte (1TB) USB thumbdrives are said to be just a few years away. The largest commercially available flash drives today are only 32GB in size - 30 times smaller and very pricey.
Smaller, better than flash
The new memory uses nano tech to charge copper particles on the molecular scale, making it 1,000 times more energy efficient as current flash memory. This bodes well for use in portable devices like phones and iPods.
"A thumb drive using our memory could store a terabyte of information," Michael Kozicki, director of ASU's Center for Applied Nanoionics, told Wired magazine. "All the current limitations in portable electronic storage could go away. You could record video of every event in your life and store it."
For the last eight years, the density of flash memory has doubled anually, meaning that capacities have increased 100 per cent every twelve months. But now flash memory is reaching its physical limitations, so this new memory could be stepping in at the crucial time.
SSDs set for boom?
The new memory could also be the answer for computer manufacturers who want to incorporate solid state hard drives but can't due to limitations of size and cost.
Wired says that PMC memory works in a vastly different way to current flash technology.
Flash uses electronic charges to physically store bits of information, whereas PMC works on the molecular scale to create nanowires from copper atoms. These nanowires record binary ones and zeroes, enabling a massive amount of data to be stored in a tiny space.
If a positive charge is passed through the PMC memory, the nanowires disassemble, allowing it to be used over and over again.
The first PMC memory chip is slated to go into production in April 2009.
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slrman
December 14th 2009
1. Au contraire mon ami. I have a Sony USB thumb drive of 32 GB and a Kingston one of 64 MB. I bought both on eBay. The 32 GB drive is stainless steel and was $50. A few months later, I found the 64GB drive on eBay for about $30.
While this new technology is exciting, it is hardly unexpected. If anything, it will make the change to SSDs happen even more quickly. They are already proving themselves to be better in terms of speed, reliability, and power consumption.
When the price falls a bit more, mechanical drives will go the way of the 8" floppy disk. Almost no one will even remember them.
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