Anyone ever heard of Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM)?
Benefits of magnetic storage devices like HDDs are non volatile (no constant power to hold the memory), very robust (data stored on HDDs last a very long time) and never degrades (HDDs can be written and rewritten infinitely). Disadvantages are very slow due to reading and writing being mechanically controlled.
Flash memory is the polar opposite. Non mechanical reading and writing makes it very fast. However data cannot be stored as long as HDDs and Flash cells physically degrade over time.
Combining the best of both worlds you get MRAM
MRAM is composed of magnetic bits patterned into a memory configuration where the magnetic bits can be written by an electrical current. There is a lot of research going on about this and it is speculated that a MRAM can have SDRAM read/write speeds with HDD level power consumption, memory stability and longevity.
Some good reads
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2769...-prototype-a-competitor-for-flash-memory.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetoresistive_random-access_memory
Benefits of magnetic storage devices like HDDs are non volatile (no constant power to hold the memory), very robust (data stored on HDDs last a very long time) and never degrades (HDDs can be written and rewritten infinitely). Disadvantages are very slow due to reading and writing being mechanically controlled.
Flash memory is the polar opposite. Non mechanical reading and writing makes it very fast. However data cannot be stored as long as HDDs and Flash cells physically degrade over time.
Combining the best of both worlds you get MRAM
MRAM is composed of magnetic bits patterned into a memory configuration where the magnetic bits can be written by an electrical current. There is a lot of research going on about this and it is speculated that a MRAM can have SDRAM read/write speeds with HDD level power consumption, memory stability and longevity.
Some good reads
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2769...-prototype-a-competitor-for-flash-memory.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetoresistive_random-access_memory