Phase-Change memory

[Dr Mordrid]

http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=0300034ND926

IBM's new phase-change memory alloy, also called GS for the two elements -- germanium and antimony -- that make it up, can quickly move between amorphous and crystalline states, reproducing the ones and zeroes used to store the world's electronic data. The GS alloy is faster than current flash memory by a factor of 500, uses half the power, and, like flash, retains its data when the power is off.
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weighs in at a mere 3 x 20 nanometers. Like flash, it retains its data when the power is off -- a memory quality called "nonvolatile." But unlike flash, it works as quickly as RAM, meaning that IBM's alloy might one day make its way into computers and processors as an ultrafast, ultracool, ultrasmall way to store data.
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[Jammrock]

No wonder MRAM never took off. PRAM looks like it may be the next wave.

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup. Small, (presumably) cheap, fast, cool & non-volatile would be a hard combo to beat.

[Technoid]

yet anothe vaporware....

[Dr Mordrid]

Peer review all too often = protection of existing product cycles.

[Sasq]

yet anothe vaporware....

vaporeware is not something I am used to from IBM with patents.

might take a while, and IBM might not produce it themselves, and it will require licensing, but one thing I am sure of, big blue is all about money and getting their patents to produce same said

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup. They don't play industrial softball

[Greebe]

Yup. They don't play industrial softball

snickers

[Jammrock]

IBM developed MRAM, too, but so far it's almost been vaporware. Only one company sells chips, but it's top capacity is 1 Gb. Though MRAM may make a larger apperance before PRAM comes into play.

[Nowhere]

Hmmm...imagine cache on CPU (or even in RAM) with most used/needed during bootup OS files.

[Wombat]

I bet they'd give it a cute little name, like BIOS or something.

[agallag]

Zing!