Chip phase change: Breakthrough technology on memory chips

A group of scientists has announced a breakthrough invention in computer memory technology, allowing the creation of stream of music players, cameras and electronic devices that are both compact and save data better. .

Experts from IBM, Macronix and Qimonda say they have successfully developed a material used to produce "phase change" memory, which is 500 to 1000 times faster than current flash memory. What's more amazing is the level of power it consumes, just half that of "flash" technology.

" With phase change memory, you will be able to do a lot of things that were previously flashed by memory ," said IBM's director of nanoscience research, Spike Narayan. " You can replace the drive, make" instant noodles "computers, compress all the complicated computer applications in the palm ."

Source: AFP With the electronics industry working tirelessly to create increasingly small but increasingly powerful devices , " the future of phase change memory is extremely bright ", vice president of technology IBM TCChen agrees.

" As expected, flash memory will" roll "a limited amount of time soon, but today, we have seen in memory the phase change of Flash memory successor. "

No dependence on electricity

The new parapet used to make phase-change chips is a synthetic semiconductor developed jointly by the German Almaden Research Center, Taiwan's memory company Qimonda and Taiwan's Macronix memory chip firm.

Typically, computer memory chips store information in the form of "0" and "1" character sequences according to a mechanism that these two states can easily convert to each other.

The two fastest and most economical memory chip designs today - SRAM and DRAM all use memory cells (cells) with electrical leakage characteristics, so they are required to be powered simultaneously and continuous to be able to function normally. Both types of dynamic memory can lose internal storage information once the power supply is interrupted.

Meanwhile, the heart of phase-changing memory is a tiny alloy, capable of rapidly changing between two states: crystallization, order with indeterminate, non-order. Most importantly, without the need for power, it can still maintain the phases as usual.

" This is a much more powerful memory technology. It will be more widely used than Flash technology in micro devices ," Narayan predicts.

Although the type of semiconductor alloy used to make phase-change memory is a completely new invention, in fact, it has been used in phase change technology in DVDs and CDs for several decades. Both Samsung and Intel are studying memory for phase change, Narayan said.

Trong Cam