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IBM Creates Working "Racetrack Memory"

Posted by kdawson on from the and-they're-off dept.

holy_calamity writes "IBM has created the first working 'racetrack memory' device — a technology we've discussed as it's been touted as the future of memory. It works by writing bits using the magnetic domains inside a very thin wire. Those domain can be shunted along this 'racetrack' and past read heads."

4 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds like... by Gordonjcp · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... bubble memory. Welcome to 1968.

  2. Correct me if I'm wrong, by jockeys · · Score: 3, Interesting

    but hasn't this been done in the past with electrical pulses sent down a very long wire? In a loop? So long ago that registers were called accumulators?

    I remember my OpSys prof showing us one of these things that was new and shiny when HE was in school. Basically just a long (couple km, I think) wire wrapped up in a small coil the size of a shoebox that acted as RAM by sending pulses around the loop, reading them and then sending them again... the delay of electrons traveling the loop acted as extra space, until you were sending pulses continuously. Sort of like a circular stack.

    Anyone else see some similarities here?

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    In Soviet Russia jokes are formulaic and decidedly non-humorous.
  3. Re:Turing Machine! by somersault · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Lego Turing Machine

    Lego Difference Engine :D

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    which is totally what she said
  4. Compared to PMC? by babymac · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Does anyone have any idea how this compares to programmable metallization cell technology which made the news recently? How close to production is PMC vs racetrack memory?

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    "War makes me sad." - Me