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IBM Creates Multi-Bit Phase Change Memory

Posted by samzenpus on from the look-what-we-found dept.

Lucas123 writes "In what is likely to be a strong rival to NAND flash memory, IBM today announced it has been able to successfully store more than one bit of data per cell in a more stable non-volatile memory called phase-change memory (PCM). Unlike NAND, Previously, PCM couldn't contend with flash because of its low capacity points. PCM does not require that data be erased before new data is written to it, which reduces write amplification or wear out and it has 100 times the write performance of flash. IBM researchers say they plan to license the technology to memory manufacturers instead of producing it themselves."

14 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Another nail in the Coffin of the Hard Drive by Quato · · Score: 2

    Dad, tell us again about how you used to store your data on spinning disks....

    1. Re:Another nail in the Coffin of the Hard Drive by dbc · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ironic?? No. You must work for the phone company.

      Success in Silicon Valley has always been about turning your own products into obsolete dinosaurs before your competition does, or die. Companies unwilling to torpedo their most successful products with something better are on the path to doom.

    2. Re:Another nail in the Coffin of the Hard Drive by dbc · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "Dad, tell us again about how you used to store your data on spinning disks...."

      Who here has stored a program on punched paper tape using an ASR 33 teletype? *raises hand*

    3. Re:Another nail in the Coffin of the Hard Drive by somersault · · Score: 2

      I don't think it needs to be cheaper at all. Just cheap enough. I like having no moving parts in my netbook, tablet, phone etc. I also don't have any need for more than say 300GB to be comfortable on anything but a media PC right now.

      --
      which is totally what she said
    4. Re:Another nail in the Coffin of the Hard Drive by ahadsell · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Also *raises hand*.

      On one system we stored programs by wiring them into a ROM. By hand. One wire per word, wrapped around the center pole of the E-cores clockwise for a 1, or counterclockwise for a 0. Then solder one end of the wire to the correct X address, and the other end to the correct Y address. Total, 256 16-bit words per board (Z was decoded to board-select).

      Yes, I am old.

    5. Re:Another nail in the Coffin of the Hard Drive by wagnerrp · · Score: 2

      If I wanted to appear smart, I would correct you a second time on the use of disk, since you missed it the first time. Disc is from the Greek discus, a later adopted spelling of the term, and used to describe things you throw, like frisbees and CDs. Disk is the more traditional English spelling, and used to describe storage devices, since that is the spelling IBM chose to use when they started manufacturing disk drives 55 years ago.

      I would consider this a nail in the coffin if it resulted in a drastic decrease in the use of disk drives, limiting it only to fringe applications. Flash drives have dropped in price drastically over the past decade, but due to its basic design, they're rapidly closing in on a wall, past which they cannot miniaturize it any further. This new technology is still several years away from the market, and in the mean time, hard disks will continue dropping in price, and people will continue storing all sorts of crap.

      If the average consumer stops storing stuff locally, and instead migrates to the cloud, hosting companies are going to have all this data they need to store, with only modest performance requirements. The most economical way to achieve this for the foreseeable future will be disk drives. Even though the average consumer won't have disk drives in their own computers, their data will still be stored on disk drives. There will continue to be a vast market for their production.

      Disk drives are being replaced by SSDs in a number of applications. SSDs win out when performance or power consumption needs are critical. Disk drives are still king in any application requiring bulk storage, and that is not due to change any time soon.

    6. Re:Another nail in the Coffin of the Hard Drive by the_other_chewey · · Score: 2

      Nicola Tesla invented a bladeless turbine nearly 100 years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_turbine

      Wich has exactly nothing to do with "no moving parts" ventilation, as it is about
      spinning a big disc using a flow of gas or liquid.

    7. Re:Another nail in the Coffin of the Hard Drive by Tristfardd · · Score: 2

      Also raises hand. On one project I loaded the software, powered down, pulled the memory card with its core memory, walked though a food processing plant, plugged it back in, and started debugging. It was quicker. The customer insisted on receiving a paper tape copy and only had the printer on the tty. 40+k used almost an entire roll. I don't think anyone ever tried to read it back in.

  2. Summary is wrong by goruka · · Score: 2

    we all know researchers don't take business decisions

  3. Fast is great, but.. by h8sg8s · · Score: 2

    It's density+cost per bit that will change things. PCM is still orders of magnitude slower than SRAM and DRAM and the Memristor (HP) may still beat it to market for the aforementioned parameters. Nice that so many irons are in the fire to retire spinning rust, can't happen soon enough for me.

    --
    Organization? You must be joking..
  4. Re:Rubbish. by wagnerrp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The problem with flash memory is that it is inherently volatile. It is based off the storage of a static charge, and there is no such thing as a perfect insulator. During normal operation, you need a high current to tunnel through the insulator and store the charge, but that charge will slowly leak out on its own over time. Given enough time, the charge will drop below a threshold and be read incorrectly.

    All microprocessor technologies suffer from this to some extent, and CPUs are expected to hit a wall dealing with this leakage in about 15 years. Flash memory is only expected to get one or two more process shrinks before this leakage is expected to cause problems on a useful time frame. At this point, flash memory will have to be refreshed like traditional DRAM more and more frequently. Online SSDs can afford this, but offline USB drives cannot. Now you can simply start stacking chips, but your costs will rise geometrically, and heat dissipation will become a problem. Flash will be unable to produce higher capacity at lower prices.

    One of these new technologies will pan out in the near term, because with the current technology reaching the end of its life, the industry will have to transition to something new to continue to sell new product.

  5. Re:I spy, with my little eye... by DigiShaman · · Score: 2

    Truely the "Holy Grail" of storage is to go back to core memory. No, not the kind that used ferrite rings. Rather, a very fast type of unified L cache that represents both RAM and non-volitile storage. It provides the kind of hardware platform DB admins dream of.

    --
    Life is not for the lazy.
  6. In this case, it is simple irony by sirwired · · Score: 2

    IBM no longer has anything whatsoever to do with Hard Drive manufacture, they sold that business to Hitachi years ago. IBM does sell storage equipment (quite a bit of it), but it contains drives made by somebody else.

  7. Re:Rubbish. by mochan_s · · Score: 2

    Just like hard disks, flash memory cost capacity is tied to materials engineering - in case of flash memory it is the insulating material in the cells. In the next 15 years, I'm sure there will newer materials or material configurations found that will enable process shrinks. Right now leakage is not a problem since the data lifetime is estimated to be around 15 years. Also, flash memory is manufactured in a slightly different method than CPUs or other circuit boards.

    Also, flash memory can be used for multiple bits per cell as the electronics mechanisms of reading and writing data are improved; interference can be minimized and other techniques to increase cell density can be used.

    I think there is possibilities that could enable flash memory to dramatically decrease in cost per bit.