IBM makes Racetrack Memory Breakthrough

[Sam I Am]

This means you could store a substantial library of DVD quality movies on your smartphone!

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IBM says they have made a significant leap forward in the viability of "Racetrack memory," a new technology design which has the potential to exponentially increase computing power. This new tech could give devices the ability to store as much as 100 times more information than they do now, which would be accessed at far greater speeds while utilizing "much less" energy than today's designs. In the future, a single portable device might be able to hold as much memory as today's business-class servers and run on a single battery charge for weeks at a time.

Racetrack memory works by storing data as magnetic regions (also called domains), which would be transported along nanowire "racetracks." Instead of forcing a computer to seek out the data it needs, as traditional computing systems do, the information would automatically slide along the racetrack to where it could be used. The result: powerful and efficient computing.

The concept of storing bits of data in the region between two magnetic domains (the domain wall) has been around for nearly a half century. However, manipulating domain walls was an expensive and power-needy endeavor. The new finding published in the current issue of the journal Science shows how engineers at IBM's Racetrack Memory Project were able to precisely and efficiently control the placement of these magnetic domains within a racetrack system. By controlling electrical pulses along the track, researchers were able to move these domains at hundreds of miles per hour and then stop them precisely at the position needed, allowing massive amounts of stored data to be accessed in a billionth of a second.

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[SaltwaterServr]

That is a huge development. Thanks for sharing.

[theogt]

I honestly can't remember the last "breakthrough" I've read about that actually amounted to anything.

Usually if it's a true breakthrough it's not widely publicized until its profitable and out on the market.

[Kangaroo]

The more impressive is this one but it is still a long long ways off as well

http://www.computerworld.com/s/artic..._atoms_t hick


Computerworld - Researchers at Rice University have demonstrated a new data storage medium made out of a layer of graphite only 10 atoms thick.

The technology could potentially provide many times the capacity of current flash memory and withstand temperatures of 200 degrees Celsius and radiation that would make solid-state disk memory disintegrate.

The team, lead by professor James Tour, included postdoctoral researchers Yubao Li and Alexander Sinitskii. In an interview, Tour said laboratory tests started a year and a half ago but his team only recently published a paper on the results.

Laboratory tests showed that they were able to grow graphene, which technically is 10 or fewer layers of graphite, atop silicon and use it to store a bit of data. The sheets were roughly 5 nanometers in diameter. Graphene is a form of carbon.

"Though we grow it from the vapor phase, this material is just like graphite in a pencil. You slide these right off the end of your pencil onto paper. If you were to place Scotch tape over it and pull up, you can sometimes pull up as small as one sheet of graphene. It is a little under 1 nanometer thick," Tour said.

The new solid-state memory is one of many next-generation technologies that could someday replace NAND flash memory at the 20 nanometer (nm) node size. Others include race track memory and phase-change memory. Currently, NAND flash memory can be as small as 45nm in size, but projections show the technology will reach its limit of 20nm by around 2012. By using graphene, Tour said, bits could be made smaller than 10nm in size.

[Sam I Am]

Originally Posted by theogt

I honestly can't remember the last "breakthrough" I've read about that actually amounted to anything.

Usually if it's a true breakthrough it's not widely publicized until its profitable and out on the market.

You are always so pessimistic.

[BrAinPaiNt]

Originally Posted by nyc

You are always so pessimistic.

Which says a great deal coming from you.

[Sam I Am]

Originally Posted by BrAinPaiNt

Which says a great deal coming from you.

I'm not pessimistic. I just flat out hate everyone.

[BrAinPaiNt]

Originally Posted by nyc

I'm not pessimistic. I just flat out hate everyone.

Reminds me of a line from the Wolverine Blues song by Entombed where he yells out ,,., I'm a misanthropical breed

[Sam I Am]

Originally Posted by BrAinPaiNt

Reminds me of a line from the Wolverine Blues song by Entombed where he yells out ,,., I'm a misanthropical breed

If the shoe fits. I should switch my Unfriendly and Aloof to Misanthropical Breed.

Hos, Git're done!

[ABQCOWBOY]

It's already being used in IBMs Power 7 Server Lines. Also allows you to use a much cheaper memory then what most Big Iron is utilizing today. Partitionable as well.