stt-ram
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IBM's prototype STT MRAM device spins your bits right round, baby, right round
If you're a frequent reader you're surely well aware of the potential of spin torque transfer memory, or STT-MRAM, and how spin-polarized magnetic currents (and the electrons they love to caress) might hold the potential to revolutionize storage as we know it. If you can't get your noggin around the concepts, know the potential: a new type of memory that will be cheaper, faster, and more efficient than current RAM, while also having the flash-like ability to retain data without power. IBM, who first floated the idea last year, is now sharing some more details about its prototype device that, while only able to store 4Kb of data (roughly half the text of this post in ASCII), is said to be able to retain that for 10 years. There's still no word on when we might be able to buy some of the stuff for our home computers, or when it'll be able to hold something a little more impressive (like maybe a whole post), but we're guessing it'll be well into the next decade before your Three 6 Mafia MP3 collection starts ridin' spinning electrons that don't stop. [Via MRAM-Info]
Toshiba says its 1GB MRAM chips are "almost ready," we're ready now
It wasn't long ago that IBM promised to unleash its racetrack MRAM (magnetoresistive RAM) on a power and speed-hungry computing public, but now Toshiba says its 1GB MRAM chips are "almost ready". The chips use Spin-RAM (STT-RAM) and Toshiba fully expects them to take over where DRAM left off by 2015. They say their new chips use about 10 percent the energy used by DRAM and, like MRAM is supposed to do, retain memory even after the power supply has been cut off. So what does this mean? Instant boot-up, fast access times, and super-low power consumption. While MRAM has been announced by others, capacities and speeds promised by this 1GB jobby from Toshiba will certainly make things worthwhile.[Via MRAM-info]
IBM's next gen flash storage to feature spinning electrons
You don't usually think of IBM in the context of flash memory innovation, but all those processors Big Blue cranks out require some kind of cache , and the company's new joint venture with TDK is designed to create the next-gen of flash, using a technology called "spin torque transfer" that will allow scaling beyond 65nm. STT-RAM, as it's called, uses a current to "spin-polarize" electrons and align their magnetic fields to represent 1s and 0s. Intel and others have invested heavily in a rival next-gen tech called phase change, but IBM says STT is faster and may last longer. Obscure system-on-a-chip next-gen flash memory format war, here we come!
