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Making memory: Phase-change memory devices are mass-produced on silicon wafers such as the one above.
Intel
In February, Intel and STMicroelectronics announced a new type of phase-change memory technology that doubles the storage capacity of each memory cell. Edward Dollar, chief technology officer of Numonyx, suspects that this improved phase-change memory, which has been transferred to Numonyx, could be ready to be mass-produced by the end of the decade. By doubling the capability of phase-change memory, he says, "it starts to become competitive" with the type of flash memory used in solid-state hard drives.
Samsung is also developing phase-change memory. But Numonyx is in a good position to lead the industry in phase-change memory, says Jim Handy, an analyst at Objective Analysis, a market research firm. "In phase-change memory, there's really only a handful of companies who are dabbling in the technology," he says.
Numonyx is funded by $150 million from the Francisco Partners investment firm, and it makes use of more than 2,500 issued patents; another 1,000 patents are pending from its parent companies.
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malaeum
6 Comments
Materials used
Can anyone please enlighten me as to some of the materials used in this method and possibly the limitations thereof?
TIA!
Reply
Guest (jpdemers)
Re: Materials used
Same stuff as in the active layer of a DVD.
Wikipedia has all you want to know (and links to more than you want to know)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-change_memory
Reply
Kate Greene
17 Comments
Re: Materials used
Phase-change memory is made of a type of glassy chemical compound called a chalcogenide. Ed Doller, CTO of Numonyx, said that the chalcogenide used in phase-change memory is sensitive to temperatures above 150 degrees C, which means that above these temperatures data in a phase-change memory cell will be lost. System designers have had to adjust to this temperature limitation by programming data or code onto the phase-change memory chip after it has been assembled on a printed circuit board--a process that requires temperatures around 200 degrees C.
Reply
nekote
139 Comments
150 °C and reduced energy
150°C - heating microscopic "bits" of matter in a particular "manner" for create a 0 or 1?
Even at that temperature, reducing energy use / prolonging battery life?
Reading the data takes comparatively no energy?
Less than what Flash takes?
2,500 patents and 1,000 more, pending?
Sheesh!
Reply