Flash drives, storage and RAM’s have been ruling the world since the dawn of the computer age. IBM has come up with a new revolution in the field of storage and is all set to roll on the modern gadgets and technologies any time soon after the research finalizes it.
Yes. Something optical in the limelight. It is an optical storage solution that IBM is all set to revolutionize. It is said to have been using a Phase Change Memory(PCM). Crystalline in structure, it is used for various optical disk readers and other technology for years now. Previously, it had limitations as there was only on/off functionality that stored on per bit information.But now, the scientists at IBM’s Zurich Office(facility) have succeeded in saving ‘3’ bits of information per a unit cell! That is more than incredible. Before some years too, scientists proposed a system to store 1 bit of information per cell, but this year at the IEEE International Memory Workshop, which held in Paris, the Scientists of IBM Research Lab showed the Triple-Level-Phase-Change-Memory.
The Basic Working:
Phase Change Memory or PCM contains two states; one is the Amorphous state which can be viewed something as a structureless state, and the other is Crystalline state which has a firm, solid structure beneath its body.
The Amorphous State has low electrical conductivity while the Crystalline State has high electrical conductivity.
The primary process of storing a ‘0’ or a ‘1’ in the cell is to apply some high current over to it. Similarly, reading of bits is done by using a low voltage current on it. The bits ‘0’ and ‘1’ can be anyone of the states either Amorphous or Crystalline. The same process used to date in various CD/DVD writers, and Blu-Ray Disc Players was the same. Now it is time to breakthrough this technology and use it further on the more important technology.
Now with the help of this Triple-Level-Phase-Change-Memory, 3 bits of data per cell can be stored! This is something only scientists at IBM can pull off. If successful, this technology can be of much help to the existing DRAM and Hard Disk Drive Storage. PCM is supposedly non-volatile, and this could prove a great future for the IBM. Something which is supposedly 50 times faster than Flash Memory will be very well accepted by the industry and would revolutionize the whole computer industry.
