NAND flash’s combination of high data transfer speeds and rapidly falling prices have resulted in pretty much every gadget these days relying on it as a storage medium, but it’s expected to become unreliable as transistor sizes continue to shrink. One alternative is phase change memory (PCM), which employs a special glass that can switch back and forth between crystalline and amorphous states — and it looks like Micron is the first to market with a mobile chip that uses it. The company is offering up a multichip package for feature phones that combines a 125MB 45-nanometer PCM chip with 64MB of low power mobile RAM, but it says it has its eye on smartphones and tablets in the future. Micron is reporting random read speeds of 400MB/s, which compares very well with current generation NAND flash; especially impressive given that this is a first generation product. If you’re intrigued, check out the video below to see Micron demo some of PCM’s benefits, including non-volatility and bit-alterability.
Micron first to market with mobile phase change memory
Micron Technologies is the first company to market with a mobile chip that uses phase change memory. The multichip package is for feature phones and combines a 125MB 45-nanometer PCM chip with 64MB of low power mobile RAM.
Micron Technologies is the first company to market with a mobile chip that uses phase change memory. The multichip package is for feature phones and combines a 125MB 45-nanometer PCM chip with 64MB of low power mobile RAM.
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