IBM invention to change phase of memory

BIG BLUE said it, Qimonda and Macronix will show off a memory technology which could topple the rise and rise of flash chips used in iPods and digital cameras.

The three companies will show off phase change memory at an IEEE conference in San Francisco on the 13th of December.

The firms will claim phase change memory offers the promise of high density non volatile memory. Boffins at IBM labs have a prototype phase change memory device hey claim switched 500 times faster than flash and with a cross section of three by 20 nanometres.

This type of process, said IBM, won't be reached by flash memory devices until 2015, provided Moore's Law holds out. The promising tech uses a germanium antimony semiconductor base, doped with other, unspecified elements. µ