Researchers at Arizona State University have developed a low-cost, low-power computer memory that could put terabyte-sized thumb drives in consumers’ pockets within a few years, reports Wired. The new technology manipulates charged copper particles at the molecular scale, and the ASU researchers say the technology on a per-bit basis, both one-tenth of the cost of, and 1,000 times more energy efficient than, the flash memory technology currently used in such things as iPhones and other mobile devices.
“A thumb drive using our memory could store a terabyte of information,” says Michael Kozicki, director of ASU’s Center for Applied Nanoionics, which developed the technology. “All the current limitations in portable electronic storage could go away. You could record video of every event in your life and store it.”
The new memory technology — programmable metallization cell (PMC) — comes as current storage technologies are starting to reach their physical limits. At the tiny scale envisioned for new devices, flash memory becomes unstable. The physical limits of flash are already being approached, and could be reached in the near future, which could slow product development for portable device makers like Apple and Sandisk.
Instead of storing bits of data as an electronic charge, as flash memory does, PMC memory stores data by creating “nanowires” from copper atoms the size of a virus. I don’t really know what that means, but as more and more of our devices and gadgets incorporate computer memory, a memory technology that uses 1,000 times less energy can’t be a bad thing.
ASU’s press release says “industry has already shown interest in the new memory and, if all goes well, consumers could see it on the market within a few years.”
“What it means is we could replace all of the memory in all sorts of applications – from laptops to iPods to cell phones to whatever – with this one type of memory,” Kozicki says. “Because it is so low energy, we can pack a lot of memory and not drain battery power; and it’s not volatile – you can switch everything off and retain information. What makes this significant is that we are using materials that are already in use in the semiconductor industry to create a component that’s never been thought of before.”
Keep an eye on Arizona Technology Enterprises, ASU’s technology commercialization company, which handles “technology transfer,” the process of moving innovations like the PMC memory technology from the lap to the commercial sector.
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Are there any prototype component we can test for radiation effects. This is important for space applications.
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