IBM Shows Off Flash Killing Technology

December 13th, 2006: Pushed by the unquenchable consumer and business thirst for portable storage, IBM has unveiled a new prototype flash technology that it claims is 500 times faster than current flash memory using half the power.

Showing the technology off at the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineer's 2006 International Electron Devices Meeting in San Francisco this week, IBM says that it is a form of phase-change memory (PCM).

Using new semiconductor alloys (a combination of germanium, antimony and tellurium), the technology is non-volatile like flash, and can also be scaled to a ridiculously small 3 by 20 nanometres - the chip industry’s projected 2015 target.

"These results dramatically demonstrate that phase-change memory has a very bright future," said Dr. T. C. Chen, vice president, science and technology at IBM Research. "Many expect flash memory to encounter significant scaling limitations in the near future. Today, we unveil a new phase-change memory material that has high performance even in an extremely small volume. This should ultimately lead to phase-change memories that will be very attractive for many applications."

A joint project between IBM, Macronix and Quimonda, the three are pushing phase-change technology as the successor to Flash. A possibility, however it will be several years at least before we start seeing this technology in the marketplace, let alone be able to judge its real potential.

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