Phase change memory is another step closer
INTEL AND NUMONYX have announced a research milestone in the development of stackable, cross-point phase change memory (PCM) technology, which could fundamentally alter the non-volatile memory market in years to come.
PCM uses chalcogenide glass and the application of heat to change states between crystalline and amorphous. In this case, the researchers have developed a way to make both the selector and storage elements based on chalcogenide materials and from that are able to create a vertically integrated memory cell comprised of one PCM element layered with a newly used Ovonic Threshold Switch (OTS) in a true cross point array.
According to Al Fazio, Intel Fellow and director of memory technology development the ability to stack these arrays allows for a level of scalability needed for mass market adoption.
Researchers from Chipzilla and the memory maker have jointly demonstrated a 64Mb test chip based on the new technology. The demo chip is just a single layer unit, but the design allows for the placing of multiple layers of PCM arrays within a single die.
If this type of memory can be cost-effectively scaled to usable memory sizes, it could potentially act as a sort of catch all storage, collapsing the need for separate NAND and DRAM memory components.
Fazio reckons that these findings pave the way for building memory devices with greater capacity, lower power consumption and optimal space savings for random access non-volatile memory and storage applications.
"The results are extremely promising," added Greg Atwood, senior technology fellow at Numonyx.
"The results show the potential for higher density, scalable arrays and NAND-like usage models for PCM products in the future. This is important as traditional flash memory technologies face certain physical limits and reliability issues, yet demand for memory continues to rise in everything from mobile phones to data centres."
Fazio and Atwood admit the technology still has a way to go and faces some stiff competition, from incumbent and other developing memory technologies, before it's ready for commercialisation, but both are excited by the prospects of this latest milestone.
More information about the memory cell will be delivered in a joint paper at the 2009 International Electron Devices Meeting taking place on 9 December in Baltimore. µ
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Pulse Code Modulation, -PCM, is a standard abbreviation in digital signal processing, and is the method used for virtually all encoding of sound and video. It is not an apt abbreviation for phase change memory.
PCM, if you have standard analog signal that taking periodic sample can produce numerical result, then that number is within parameters of normal operations, if sample is out of bounds signal is assumed flawed: PCM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-code_modulation
did uniengine test in Dx11, although have nun. like article few days ago for ati, it runs(Really Clearly) ,just slowly at 6 fps, so dx10.1 can play Dx11 software,, just not in playable range,Peepers Ce Machine Index=3,PP, so GO Shopping if YOUR DX11Game Appears.
drashek
@others
wtf about this analog stuff???
phase change memory is a technology we already know: it is used on cd-rw and dvd-rw.
The optical property of the material are changed by heating them a few hundred Celcius. (so forget it about being low power)
it take some to cool down (however just a few nanosec. it seem)So remplacing dram? well........
more info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_change_memory
Phase Change IS Photograph altered & there it sits. Agree probably be powerful to effect change of V or more. heres new optical to mechanical sensor from Cal Tech, neat pics of two crystals arranged together, .1 nm structures capture light energy & larger area turns it into mechanical frequency. here:
http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13296
Small crystals effect gradiaded or Bell Curve effected energy phase chamge in larger crystalline structure.
Photon to analog, anyone?
drashek
your writing hurts.
Sounds cool. You'll get the non-volatility (and maybe also unlimited write cycles) of HDD, low power consumption of flash and the speed of RAM. So you'll be able to replace them all with a single memory. No need to shutdown, you'll probably be able to just pull out the power plug and then when you plug it in again, it'll start just where you left it.
High temp means high power??? I didn't know that.
And don't waste your neurons and time trying to comprehend drashek/ultee's posts.
Intel's SSD costs at least $500. Can PCM reduce the cost?