IBM's prototype STT MRAM device spins your bits right round, baby, right round

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/18/ibms-prototype-stt-mram-device-spins-your-bits-right-round-bab/

If you're a frequent reader you're surely well aware of the potential of spin torque transfer memory, or STT-MRAM, and how spin-polarized magnetic currents (and the electrons they love to caress) might hold the potential to revolutionize storage as we know it. If you can't get your noggin around the concepts, know the potential: a new type of memory that will be cheaper, faster, and more efficient than current RAM, while also having the flash-like ability to retain data without power. IBM, who first floated the idea last year, is now sharing some more details about its prototype device that, while only able to store 4Kb of data (roughly half the text of this post in ASCII), is said to be able to retain that for 10 years. There's still no word on when we might be able to buy some of the stuff for our home computers, or when it'll be able to hold something a little more impressive (like maybe a whole post), but we're guessing it'll be well into the next decade before your Three 6 Mafia MP3 collection starts ridin' spinning electrons that don't stop.

[Via MRAM-Info]

Filed under: Storage

IBM's prototype STT MRAM device spins your bits right round, baby, right round originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Dec ! 2008 09: 49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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