IBM New Memory: Faster, Better, than SSDs

[exfileme]

IBM is developing a new memory technology called "Racetrack" that could replace all current forms of memory and storage solutions.

IBM New Memory: Faster, Better, than SSDs : Read more

 

[IronRyan21]

so when can I put this in raid for the home pc?

 

[Greatwalrus]

So, what's the catch?

But really, this sounds great. I would like to know when it's expected to come out rather than IBM saying "its "racetrack" memory could lead to solid state electronic devices within the next ten years."

 

[afrobacon]

What other options are we looking at in 10 years? Really by then this technology will probably outpaced by something else.

 

[lross78550]

Im surprised IBM didnt call it Token Ring memory. The explination of how it works sounds alot like old Token Ring networks. Can you guess who invented Token Ring? Yep IBM.
Lee

 

[paranoidmage]

Tom's hardware reported about this racetrack memory a couple of years ago. There isn't any information here that is new compared to that article.

 

[hustler539]

Wow! This really sounds promising. Almost sounds too good to be true.
Remember spintronics helped bring us the huge hds we have today. Hopefully they move thru with development as quickly as possible so we can see this in a consumer product in under 10 years, that would be great

 

[hustler539]

Wow! This really sounds promising. Almost sounds too good to be true.
Remember spintronics helped bring us the huge hds we have today. Hopefully they move thru with development as quickly as possible so we can see this in a consumer product in under 10 years, that would be great

 

[kingssman]

well, it sure beats laser holographic storage mediums. Course 10 years away, we could be using optic fiber threaded processors or nanotube chips along with graphic cards that will multicore ghz processing power.

 

[anamaniac]

I'm going to cream my pants if I keep reading.... oh crap. 10 years? Nice, and hopefully they have a fully functional model soon, but for now HDDs are my choice.
I would love a 10TB thumb music/video player with 1G/sec+ read/writes that cost only a few dollars.

 

[jeraldjunkmail]

Not going to happen if IBM sells hard drives still. This sounds so good that they will either replace their whole hardware ecosystem or they will stuff it under the rug as an "experiment".

 

[MoUsE-WiZ]

I will begin modeling racecars in 3DS Max immediately so that I will have appropriate data to store on it 10 years from now.

 

[Hamsterabed]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/spintronics-work-ibm-outlines-racetrack-memory,5183.html

Same quotes even, IBM move forward on this project, get some demos going and show us the awesome. The only real difference i see is that the spin technology is more within reach now.

 

[crisisavatar]

reading that made me happy.

 

[Shadow703793]

[citation][nom]IronRyan21[/nom]so when can I put this in raid for the home pc?[/citation]
5-10 years or more.

 

[Guest]

almost sounds like a DNA structure!
I'm sure the drive could be very solidly made, but calling it 'indestructible';especially the data?

Anything that relies on magnetic fields can be magnetically manipulated!
Meaning place the drive over a strong magnet,and what would happen?
Especially one atom layer material should be extremely sensitive!

 

[the_one111]

[citation][nom]ProDigit80[/nom]almost sounds like a DNA structure!I'm sure the drive could be very solidly made, but calling it 'indestructible';especially the data?Anything that relies on magnetic fields can be magnetically manipulated!Meaning place the drive over a strong magnet,and what would happen?Especially one atom layer material should be extremely sensitive![/citation]
They secretly put some Chuck Norris sweat into the prototypes. Thus they were indestructible.

 

[stradric]

[citation][nom]afrobacon[/nom]What other options are we looking at in 10 years? Really by then this technology will probably outpaced by something else.[/citation]

Actually I think nanowire technology is the holy grail. 'Within 10 years' is different than '10 years'. It could be 2 years. It could be 5. It could be 10. It's hard to conceive of something that is more bleeding edge than this. After all, it uses spintronics.

 

[Guest]

I wonder if this has anything to do with the rumors of that UFO crashing near IBM's headquarters... j/k, j/k

 

[kittle]

nice sounding.
i wonder if the HD companies will squash this one too. seems like a lot of really cool sounding storage technologies surface and then nobody hears from them again.

 

[solymnar]

The catch? Reliably engineering the materials.

If we could do what needs to be done to make this right now 32nm processors would (probably) be old hat.

They are talking about atomic level material manipulation, not nano level. Pretty big difference with a separate set of hurdles. Its a material scientist's wet dream, to reliably control structure at an atomic level.

 

[DXRick]

10 years is 53 dog years. This is way to long for technology.

 

[dark_lord69]

In 10 years I'll already have a quad Raid 0 SSD setup AND by then SATA III or faster will be released. In 10 years we will all be using different computers that are way faster than they are today. Buy then there will be a higher demand for a faster higher capacity SSD as stated.

 

[geoffs]

The explination of how it works sounds alot like old Token Ring networks.

Nothing like token ring, not even vaguely similar.

Not going to happen if IBM sells hard drives still.

IBM sold their HD manufacturing to Hitachi 5+ years ago. While IBM might still be a part owner, they're essentially out of the HD business.

i wonder if the HD companies will squash this one too.

Not likely, the HD manufacturers know there is a limit to how much data you can put on a magnetic medium and serious performance limits when there are moving parts involved.

It's hard to conceive of something that is more bleeding edge than this. After all, it uses spintronics.

Spintronics is leading edge, but it's been in production products for almost 20 years. MR/GMR "spin-valve" read/write heads for HDs are based upon spintronics and they've been in use for almost 20 years, so it's not exactly bleeding edge. The nanowire manufacturing part of this is likely to be the biggest obstacle to getting this out any time soon.

 

[pim69]

[citation][nom]dark_lord69[/nom]In 10 years I'll already have a quad Raid 0 SSD setup AND by then SATA III or faster will be released. In 10 years we will all be using different computers that are way faster than they are today. Buy then there will be a higher demand for a faster higher capacity SSD as stated.[/citation]

SATAIII was developed at the same time as SATA1 and 2. I believe I read about it on Tom's Hardware (a few years ago!), and I expected all 3 to be released in close succession for various applications. Nope... it's more profitable to release in slow increments to make people want to keep replacing stuff.