IBM research spints 'Racetrack' nano-magnetic memory

[LongTomH]

OK, kids! The bright people at IBM have made that flashy new, flash drive for your laptop a museum piece, and you haven't even finished reading the instructions yet.

This newest innovation in non-volatile memory is another example of the use of carbon nanotubes or nanowires; Researchers have already made nanowire transistors. This latest application uses the 'spin' of electrons rather than their charge.

IBM's goal, based on spintronic patents filed as early as 2004, is to use the same square micron that currently houses a single SRAM memory bit, or 10 flash bits, and drill down into the third dimension to store spin-polarized bits on a sunken racetrack-shaped magnetic nanowire. Using an area of silicon 1 micron wide and 10 microns high, IBM said its first-generation racetrack would store 10 bits compared to one, thereby replacing flash memory. Eventually, it could store 100 bits in the same area, which is dense enough to replace hard-disk drives.

<snip>

Parkin invented a spin valve sensing device in 1989 based on the giant magnetoresistive effect, which was used to increase disk drive capacity 1,000-fold. "Then we invented the use of the magnetic-tunnel junction (MTJ)--a sandwich of two magnetic layers separated by a dielectric--which we used to build the first magnetic random access memories in 1999.

"The third generation is the racetrack, which could replace all nonvolatile memories, including flash memory and hard-disk drives," Parkin claimed.

IBM estimates that an iPod using racetrack memory could store 100 times more information. Unlike flash, the solid-state devices have no components that can wear out.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207200184

My old desktop will probably end up in a museum - right next to me!