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Intel to Sample Flash-killer PRAM This Year

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the on-the-horizon dept.

Station writes "Intel's new phase-change memory technology (PRAM) will begin sampling this year. Samsung, IBM, and Hitachi are all working on phase-change memory as a successor to flash as it has a lower (~20ns) read latency than flash (50-90ns). 'Intel says they plan to ship the first PRAM modules as a straight-ahead NOR flash replacement so that they can work the kinks out of the design before trying to move it up the memory hierarchy. The company claims a much higher number of read-write cycles (100 million) than flash, as well as a potential 10 years' worth of data retention. NOR flash is typically used as program storage memory for mobile devices like cell phones, while more durable but slower NAND flash is used for mass storage in devices like the iPod nano.'"

7 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. Killer Pram? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Killer Pram? Won't somebody think of the children!!

    1. Re:Killer Pram? by JamesTRexx · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah, it's going to be fun to go to the store here in the Netherlands and ask for a couple of "prammen". (slang for hooters :-) )

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  2. more acronym confusion...(at least for mac users) by plasmacutter · · Score: 5, Interesting

    one of the later steps in fixing technical glitches in mac systems is to zap the pram..

    imagine the confusion between 2 friends when one says "i zapped my pram" .. one fixes your computer, the other breaks your flash device..

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  3. How does this compare to NOR flash in other ways? by jonwil · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Will it be cheaper per megabyte than current NOR flash?
    Will it mean that devices like mobile phones (or devices like the Lego Mindstorms which also stores programs/data on NOR flash) can have more memory space in them?

  4. Obligatory Monty Python Reference... by jimstapleton · · Score: 4, Funny

    Do they like to push it a lot?

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  5. Re:A day late and a dollar short by tomstdenis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If their designs are pin compatible, good luck not not replacing it.

    Let's see faster, more durable, *and* drop in compatible? Short of insane license requirements I can't see it being a no sale.

    Tom

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  6. Re:A day late and a dollar short by squizzar · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So were 5.25", 3.5" floppies, zip disks, cd-rw, dvd-rw etc. If the cost is right and the benefits are great enough it will be adopted. If they package it in similar formats to that flash currently uses (eg. usb sticks, sd cards) for portable storage, and stick a SATA interface on it for internal (or even bulk external) storage, it will be adopted without most people noticing it's something new.