Intel, friend of memory, doubles phase-change capacity

Mere days ago we were being treated to the adventures of Intel and Micron in their efforts to create the "world's fastest" NAND drive, and now Intel's got its hands in some phase-change memory, with a technology to double the storage capacity without adding much cost to the fabrication. Phase-change memory is being billed as the successor to flash memory, since it relies on the configuration of a material's atoms instead of those dinky electrons we've been pushing around in our devices for the past few decades. Up until now phase-change memory has used two states to record data: loose and rigid organization of atoms (amorphous and crystalline). Now Intel, along with partner ST Microelectronics, has discovered two more distinct states in between those extremes, effectively doubling capacity in the burgeoning technology. Apparently this sort of advancement puts the clincher on this tech coming to market eventually -- and with speeds comparable to RAM plus the non-volatility of flash, we can hardly wait.

[Via Slashdot]

[w00t @ Feb 5th 2008 5:58AM]

"and with speeds comparable to RAM plus the non-volatility of flash, we can hardly wait."

Me either, the sooner this technology is in our solid state drives the better. Finally the most common bottleneck (storage) in every day computing will be gone for good!

[Nikkoli @ Feb 5th 2008 8:55AM]

I just hope that it doesn't wear out like current flash does. I want to see computers that instead of being 4GB RAM 500 GB HDD they will just say 1TB Memory because your HDD will be fast enough to talk directly to your Processor. Currently flash doesn't have enough write cycles to facilitate that.

[jonouk @ Feb 5th 2008 7:12AM]

i wouldn't hold your breath. It's still got a long way to go

[Crayola @ Feb 5th 2008 7:27AM]

Nice clear cut distilling of technical subjects to layman's level, that's why I love Engadget! Cheers guys!

[Fudge Lips @ Feb 5th 2008 8:47AM]

All praise the nerds who make our toys work.

[Jake Tobak @ Feb 5th 2008 8:54AM]

I'm probably wrong since I'm no scientist or what ever, but wouldn't having 4 states rather than 2 do more than double it? Maybe I don't understand the idea, but wouldn't it be storing data in base-4 instead of binary? So if you have 8 cells in binary you would be have 256 different combinations, but if each cell has 4 different states, you would have 65,536 different combinations.

[Nikkoli @ Feb 5th 2008 8:57AM]

4^8 will become the new 2^16... all your base are belong to us.

[wrabbit @ Feb 5th 2008 9:26AM]

That's exactly what I thought - this will create base 4 bits, which should increase capacity exponentially. However, it's entirely possible that what Intel is thinking, is that instead of using base 4 and having to reprogram the entire PC infrastructure (I imagine that to switch bases it would require a major redesign of current computers), they would simply use them as 2 base-2 bits. So for example state 1 and 3 represent first bit, and state 2 and 4 represent second bit - in that case it would indeed simply double it.

[Glen @ Feb 5th 2008 11:17PM]

Wow.

No.

Currently, computers are Base-2. On or Off. 1 or 0. TWO states

If you have a device has 4 states, that is only double. Think of it this way. You can store On/Off for bit A *and* On/Off for bit B at the same time.

Double.

Instead of a cell storing 0 or 1, it stores:
00
01
10
11

In base 2, every time you add a new "column", you double it. Thus, you'd need 8 states to double it again:
000,001,010,011,100,101,110,111

[Jake Tobak @ Feb 5th 2008 11:45PM]

Yah, that's kind of what Wrabbit said. I was thinking that they could have a 2nd processor between the CPU and the RAM that converts the binary into base-4 on the way to and back from the RAM. But it seems like what you and Wrabbit are saying is the most likely.

[Jake @ Feb 7th 2008 10:36AM]

The reason to two other distinct phases double capacity is not because they are going to be used in addition to the other two phases but because they are less distinct than the other two and thus easier to create. It is the same thing as requiring less of a voltage difference to read current memory. So, Dorks, this has nothing to do with changing the mathematical base of whatever.

[Bill @ Feb 5th 2008 10:07AM]

yeah pretty sure that it would square the amount of info you can store not double.

[gecko @ Feb 5th 2008 10:41AM]

You are missing the basics here. If you double the number of bits you square the number of different values that can be stored. For example, 2 bits can store 4 values. 4 bits can store 16 values. But its still only double the number of bits.

[Arsenic0 @ Feb 5th 2008 12:25PM]

And this IMHO is why Intel will always dominate AMD?

What was the last technological breakthrough that AMD came out with? 64 bit processors?

[Negativecool @ Feb 5th 2008 8:42PM]

"AMD, we broke the 1GHz processor barrier before anyone else!"

My god Intel is in the frickin zone these days.

[Air4ce @ Feb 5th 2008 9:05PM]

Even if this technology is available today, File Access won't speed up very fast unless we adapt another File System.

[Ali Mezher @ Feb 28th 2008 6:21AM]

je fais un projet sur le "phase_change" dans mon
universite please donnez moi des informations sur
cette nouvelle technologie
aver mes remercie
ali mezher
liban