Goodbye Flash Memory; We Hardly Knew Ya
We love solid state memory. Let's face it; you're going to have to explain to your grandchildren what it was like to have a big magnetic spinning platter holding all your ones and zeros for you. And for quite some time, it seemed like it would be advances in flash memory that would finally put conventional hard drives in their graves. But before flash has even got a chance to kill the digital metal frisbee in your computer, it looks like it's obsolete itself. Arizona State University's Center for Applied Nanionics presents their flash killer: Programmable Metallization Cell, or: PMC
...the methodology involves the new technique of nanoionics, where, Instead of moving electrons among charged particles, called ions, as in traditional electronics, nanoionics moves the ions themselves.
...the methodology involves the new technique of nanoionics, where, Instead of moving electrons among charged particles, called ions, as in traditional electronics, nanoionics moves the ions themselves.
"We've actually been able to move something the size of a virus between electrodes to switch them from a high resistance to a low resistance, which is great for memory," Michael Kozicki, director of CANi, told ASU Insight
Best of all, the new technique can be used on existing, conventional storage which means that the cost will not be prohibitive.
"In using readily available materials, we've provided a way for this memory to be made at essentially zero extra cost, because the materials you need are already used in the chips -- all you have to do is mix them in a slightly different way," said Kozicki.
PMC as described would be 1000 times more efficient than existing flash memory. Giggity.
