IBM's Optical Storage Is 50 Times Faster Than Flash, And Also Cheaper (prnewswire.com)

Flash storage is not as fast as the main memory (RAM); but RAM can't be used to store your regular files because of its volatile nature (and also because it's expensive). It appears we may soon have the perfect middle ground of the two. Scientists at IBM have demonstrated reliably storing 3 bits of data per cell using a relatively new memory technology known as phase-change memory (PCM). Engadget reports: To store PCM data on a Blu-ray disk, you apply a high current to amorphous (non-crystalline) glass materials, transforming them into a more conductive crystal form. To read it back, you apply a lower voltage to measure conductivity -- when it's high, the state is "1," and when it's low, it's "0." By heating up the materials, more states can be stored, but the problem is that the crystals can "drift" depending on the ambient temperature. IBM's team figured out how to track and encode those variations, allowing them to reliably read 3-bits of data per cell long after it was written. That suddenly makes PCM a lot more interesting -- its speed is currently much better than flash, but the costs are as high as RAM thanks to the low density.

Comments

Not optical, not fast, not 3DXP

[duckintheface]

Despite the use of the term "optical" there is nothing optical or "blue-ray disk" about this. Calcogenide glass is the PCM material. It is written and read with the application of voltage. There is no spinning disk involved.

The most obvious omission is a comparison to the Micron/Intel 3D Cross Point memory announced last summer and scheduled for commercial introduction in 2017. 3DXP is 1000 times faster than flash (not just 50 times faster). There would also seem to be a number of patent issues since 3DXP also uses calcogenide crystals as the storage medium.

It is journalistic malpractice to write an article like the two linked here without comparing the IBM research to the previously announced work by Micron and Intel.

Summary, and possibly the story, are nonsense.

[friesofdoom]

"To store PCM data on a Blu-ray disk, you apply a high current to amorphous (non-crystalline) glass materials, transforming them into a more conductive crystal form. To read it back, you apply a lower voltage to measure conductivity -- when it's high, the state is "1," and when it's low, it's "0.""

1. We do not write to blue ray disc by applying a voltage, we shine lasers at it.
2. The summary seems to have confused the fact that Chalcogenide is used in both RW Optical media, and phase-change memory.
3. The summary thinks that IBM has invented a new optical memory, when they are clearly talking about phase-change memory.
4. The summary has confused two acronyms of PCM - Phase Change Memory and Pulse Coded Modulation.

This whole summary is utterly cringe-inducing and complete garbage. Sorry.