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Samsung To Ship Chip Package With Phase-Change Memory

Posted by timothy on from the going-through-a-phase dept.

angry tapir writes "Samsung Electronics will ship a multichip package later this quarter for smartphones that will include phase-change memory (PCM), an emerging technology that could ultimately replace memory types like NOR flash. Samsung's announcement is significant because it marks the first PCM product to be available as part of a multichip package. PCM uses a glass-like material that can change from multiple states to crystalline forms as its atoms are rearranged."

2 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. Electrical load limit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    [QUOTE]But unlike NOR, PCM consumes more energy as it requires more write cycles, for which it requires more electric currents, Wong said.[/QUOTE]

    I'm a new poster, so sorry I don't know how to quote.

    Does the quoted bit mean that there is an upper limit on how fast you can write to the chip? Or is the total electrical current pulled for max protocol speed lower than the failure point of the chips? Will this generate excess heat? I'd imagine small chips would heat up fast too, since the writes would be more concentrated (lower memory bits to bits able to be written per second ratio.

  2. cache for SSD? by j1m+5n0w · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If PCM is faster but more expensive than traditional flash, it sounds like it might be useful to incorporate into SSDs as a cache, or alternatively as a separate partition to use as swap or to store the filesystem journal. Is there some reason why this wouldn't work (besides relative unavailability an expense at present)? Is PCM better able to deal with many erasure cycles (which is why SSDs aren't recommended for swap)?