Tuesday, September 11th 2007
IBM Lab Working on a Device That Could Increase Chip Storage by 10 to 100 Times
The ability to cram more data into less space on a memory chip or a hard drive has been the crucial force propelling consumer electronics companies to make ever smaller devices.
Now, if an idea that Stuart S. P. Parkin is kicking around in an I.B.M. lab here is on the money, electronic devices could hold 10 to 100 times the data in the same amount of space. That means the iPod that today can hold up to 200 hours of video could store every single TV program broadcast during a week on 120 channels.
Mr. Parkin's new approach, referred to as "racetrack memory," could outpace both solid-state flash memory chips as well as computer hard disks, making it a technology that could transform not only the storage business but the entire computing industry.
His idea is to stand billions of ultrafine wire loops around the edge of a silicon chip - hence the name racetrack - and use electric current to slide infinitesimally small magnets up and down along each of the wires to be read and written as digital ones and zeros.
If the racetrack idea can be made commercial, he will have done what has so far proved impossible - to take microelectronics completely into the third dimension and thus explode the two-dimensional limits of Moore's Law, the 1965 observation by Gordon E. Moore, a co-founder of Intel, that decrees that the number of transistors on a silicon chip doubles roughly every 18 months.
I.B.M. executives are cautious about the timing of the commercial introduction of the technology. But ultimately, the technology may have even more dramatic implications than just smaller music players or wristwatch TVs, said Mark Dean, vice president for systems at I.B.M. Research.
Source:
The New York Times
Now, if an idea that Stuart S. P. Parkin is kicking around in an I.B.M. lab here is on the money, electronic devices could hold 10 to 100 times the data in the same amount of space. That means the iPod that today can hold up to 200 hours of video could store every single TV program broadcast during a week on 120 channels.
Mr. Parkin's new approach, referred to as "racetrack memory," could outpace both solid-state flash memory chips as well as computer hard disks, making it a technology that could transform not only the storage business but the entire computing industry.
His idea is to stand billions of ultrafine wire loops around the edge of a silicon chip - hence the name racetrack - and use electric current to slide infinitesimally small magnets up and down along each of the wires to be read and written as digital ones and zeros.
If the racetrack idea can be made commercial, he will have done what has so far proved impossible - to take microelectronics completely into the third dimension and thus explode the two-dimensional limits of Moore's Law, the 1965 observation by Gordon E. Moore, a co-founder of Intel, that decrees that the number of transistors on a silicon chip doubles roughly every 18 months.
I.B.M. executives are cautious about the timing of the commercial introduction of the technology. But ultimately, the technology may have even more dramatic implications than just smaller music players or wristwatch TVs, said Mark Dean, vice president for systems at I.B.M. Research.
23 Comments on IBM Lab Working on a Device That Could Increase Chip Storage by 10 to 100 Times
"...His idea is to stand billions of ultrafine wire loops around the edge of a silicon chip — hence the name racetrack — and use electric current to slide infinitesimally small magnets up and down along each of the wires to be read and written as digital ones and zeros.
His research group is able to slide the tiny magnets along notched nanowires at speeds greater than 100 meters a second. Since the tiny magnetic domains have to travel only submolecular distances, it is possible to read and write magnetic regions with different polarization as quickly as a single nanosecond — far faster than existing storage technologies. ..."
However im sure the price will be too:mad::mad::mad:
Im scared of the cost when i hear it saying there will be billions of ultrafine wire loops omg i hope that aint too expensive i know we have technology to do alot of those but billions that just seems insane:cry::cry::cry:
Im not talking about stuff thats happend now. im talking about over a period of time. their not as big as they use to be
And thats profits not revenues so yes they really did make 9.5 Billion dollars
Edit: IBM revenue = 91.5 BILLION? Wow.
edit* or a deviation from it.
"... The elements are formed from two ferromagnetic plates, each of which can hold a magnetic field, separated by a thin insulating layer. One of the two plates is a permanent magnet set to a particular polarity, the other's field will change to match that of an external field. A memory device is built from a grid of such "cells". ..."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRAM
This new tech from IBM seems to blend nano tech with a movable "nano-magnet" :toast: