Giant memory thanks to tiny capacitors
"German-Korean research team produces a permanent memory using a new procedure and thereby sets a memory density record. "
Published: 26th June 2008 | Source: Physorg.com |
German-Korean research team produces a permanent memory using a new procedure and thereby sets a memory density record. 
As a result of today's consumers demanding it, electronics of the future are becoming increasingly smaller and lighter, as well as faster and more powerful. A method now developed by scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Germany, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) in Korea and the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) may help to achieve these goals.
The new method enables the production of particularly densely-packed memory storage. Using an extremely finely perforated mask, the researchers housed capacitors made out of platinum and lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) with a density of 176 billion bits on a square inch - a world record for this material. Such storage is easy to control and can save memory permanently. Chips made from this material could therefore replace current working memories in which saved bits have to be constantly refreshed.
Whether MP3 players, camera mobile phones, navigation systems or notebooks, all have to be compact but also able to store increasing large amounts of music, images, films or maps, and process them quickly. Innovative new memory would contribute greatly towards making electronics smaller and more powerful, especially if it were able to save information permanently, but still process data as quickly as the DRAMs on which computers currently store programs. "Permanent memory of this kind can be produced very simply and efficiently using our methods," said Dietrich Hesse, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle, Germany, who played a prominent role in the work of the research team.
Whether MP3 players, camera mobile phones, navigation systems or notebooks, all have to be compact but also able to store increasing large amounts of music, images, films or maps, and process them quickly. Innovative new memory would contribute greatly towards making electronics smaller and more powerful, especially if it were able to save information permanently, but still process data as quickly as the DRAMs on which computers currently store programs. "Permanent memory of this kind can be produced very simply and efficiently using our methods," said Dietrich Hesse, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle, Germany, who played a prominent role in the work of the research team.
According to the source the memory can save data permanently, much like a hard drive. but can process it as quickly as a working memory. Furthermore; scientists can control each memory precisely, even though they are only 60 nanometers apart from one another.
A little light reading can be found here
Mmmm solid-state, high-density memory for the win...
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Don`t like how electronics of the future are getting smaller.
I look at a computer, in it`s case and everything, and it`s either the same size or bigger.
Granted, the potential power within is that much greater (in some cases), but whilst the components of the pcb are getting smaller, the size of the pcbs are remaining the same.
How the heck we still work off the back of edge connectors, and large pins for stuff, 20 years down the line, is amazing to me.
The likes of mp3 players, for sure they`re getting silly-small and their capacities are massively increasing (up to a point it seems), but I can`t fathom for the life of me why it`s still the case that a modern-day pc isn`t the size of a shoe box.
If they had to make them that size, they probably could.
Do they perhaps work on the basis that these interchangable components are better/safer handled if their method of connection is larger and hence less clumsy to use ?
I`d prefer the statement "Present day electronics are getting smaller and smaller, and are set to get smaller still."
Such niceness in memory densities, work out great for the portable media industry, then when they get to the computer they piggy-back it onto something the area of a credit card.
Bah.
I look at a computer, in it`s case and everything, and it`s either the same size or bigger.
Granted, the potential power within is that much greater (in some cases), but whilst the components of the pcb are getting smaller, the size of the pcbs are remaining the same.
How the heck we still work off the back of edge connectors, and large pins for stuff, 20 years down the line, is amazing to me.
The likes of mp3 players, for sure they`re getting silly-small and their capacities are massively increasing (up to a point it seems), but I can`t fathom for the life of me why it`s still the case that a modern-day pc isn`t the size of a shoe box.
If they had to make them that size, they probably could.
Do they perhaps work on the basis that these interchangable components are better/safer handled if their method of connection is larger and hence less clumsy to use ?
I`d prefer the statement "Present day electronics are getting smaller and smaller, and are set to get smaller still."
Such niceness in memory densities, work out great for the portable media industry, then when they get to the computer they piggy-back it onto something the area of a credit card.
Bah.
yeah rasta i get what you mean, all in one systems are getting smaller, but PC components I think have to stay within the confines of "handleability" until we evolve and have fingers like tweezers, the interesting point is that because of the speed and capacity, memory and Hard drive technology could in theory be converged...it could be the start of a completely new architecture...thats if it doesnt fall by the wayside like most of these ground breaking ideas I read about every week...
Can only be good news tbh, won't be mainstream for a while yet, but should mean that you're not paying extra for more memory, as it's all made in the same way, to the same density. I'm still interested in the idea of "racetrack" memory as a storage medium, but that's really in its early stages. Not sure just how permanent this memory would be because even the best [and I guess smallest] capacitors leak charge over time, but I guess provided you boot up the PC once every few weeks, or there is a trickle current from a battery similar to the CMOS battery it should work pretty well.
Rast i think its cause everybody is used to the standard size of ATX/BTX, standard video card ect. I dont see how this will help RAM but i think our SSDs would benefiet greatly from it.
i'm probably going to have to eat my hat for saying this, but it seems like it would have too complicated a method of construction to really take off. how much would it cost to get your hands on a piece of kit like that anyway?
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