Wired has a write-up of a new storage technology developed at Arizona State University that could produce flash thumb drives capable of storing terabytes of data in the near future, that also happens to be cheaper and more energy efficient than flash memory. The new technology has been branded programmable metallization cell, and differs from present storage technologies in that it "creates nanowires from copper atoms the size of a virus to record binary ones and zeros." It all sounds very interesting -- if slightly too optimistic -- to us, and we'll get to find out relatively soon just how effective the new chips are: Arizona State's business arm has licensed the technology to three companies, which may be ready to sell a product containing the chips within 18 months. Watch this space.Terabyte nanotech thumb drives around the corner?
Wired has a write-up of a new storage technology developed at Arizona State University that could produce flash thumb drives capable of storing terabytes of data in the near future, that also happens to be cheaper and more energy efficient than flash memory. The new technology has been branded programmable metallization cell, and differs from present storage technologies in that it "creates nanowires from copper atoms the size of a virus to record binary ones and zeros." It all sounds very interesting -- if slightly too optimistic -- to us, and we'll get to find out relatively soon just how effective the new chips are: Arizona State's business arm has licensed the technology to three companies, which may be ready to sell a product containing the chips within 18 months. Watch this space.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
tekdroid @ Oct 27th 2007 11:41PM
Kozicki says the process is like condensing a crystal from a solution, except that the process is almost infinitely reversible. If the PMC is fed a positive charge, the copper atoms return to their previous free-floating state, and the nanowires disassemble.
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The most promising part of that article to me. People don't realise that flash gets weaker each time it's written to, until it fails - which I've seen enough times.
Now if only we actually saw this in 18 months, which i'm doubting very much. The article has the usuals of "could" do this, could do that, is low cost, is power-efficient, etc... but all we really want to see are products.
Sounds great, tho.
BananaBoat @ Oct 27th 2007 11:47PM
From the labs of Dr.Lyingtoyou and destined for store shelves by the year never.
Oh and in before "But can it play doom?"
Roger Zhang @ Oct 27th 2007 11:57PM
I want updates on this.
Bard @ Oct 28th 2007 12:02AM
Ya know... while there is the worry of vaporware, the projects that ASU does produce aren't known to disappear into thin air. What was once a party school has actually been cranking out a TON of good tech for NASA, and I think that they're on the verge of doing it again.
Call me too optimistic, but I think there's a tinsy-winsy little bit of a spine to this one that will get it to stand on it's own sooner than we think.
Shibathedog @ Oct 28th 2007 12:11AM
hopefully, Cheaper AND Better? Where do I sign? (of course its going to cost ridiculous amounts of money anyway because its new >_
Tiptup300 @ Oct 28th 2007 12:31AM
Imagine if the tech was cheap, just imagine how fast it would be acquired as normal technology. This wont happen though.
AndGadget @ Oct 28th 2007 12:35AM
Excuse me everyone...
I'm first in Engadget and I couldn't find the way deleting my comments.
There's no 'delete' button or link in Engadget and Blogsmith
How do I delete my comments and replies? Help me :(
Ayle @ Oct 28th 2007 12:50AM
You can't.... Sorry...
scott @ Oct 28th 2007 2:32AM
Just try to not reference your mistress on a tech site when you have a nerdy wife next time...
scott @ Oct 28th 2007 2:32AM
Just try to not reference your mistress on a tech site when you have a nerdy wife next time...
AndGadget @ Oct 28th 2007 3:59AM
Scott, What the hell are you talking about
Kyle Simmons @ Oct 28th 2007 12:41AM
I want more details... the article is rather lackluster. Could be very cool technology. Sounds iffy, but I guess I'm trying to apply my electrical engineering background to a rather chemical process...
Sam Zebian @ Oct 28th 2007 12:48AM
sounds cool, I wonder if they will finally be able to have affordable SSD's that can match or even be higher in capacity than Hard drives, then we will be able to use this technology in Laptops, desktops, Portable media players and much much more. If this doesn't have the problem normal flash does in memory problems after about 10 years, then this technology may be the perfect answer to all of our storage problems!!!
Fred @ Oct 28th 2007 1:05AM
When talking about your product in a computer field it't not always considered positive to compare it to a virus.
Dan @ Oct 28th 2007 1:06AM
huh. and i though everyone at ASU was an illiterate date-rapist.
jimmyb @ Oct 28th 2007 2:17AM
it's always good to accuse someone of being illiterate whilst including spelling errors in your post :)
wakka_wakka @ Oct 28th 2007 1:29AM
:O
flippin sweet!
JohnTitor @ Oct 28th 2007 2:29AM
ʎllɐʇoʇ uıddılɟ
Dan Parmelee @ Oct 28th 2007 2:34AM
I think "around the corner" is a bit of a stretch. It may be sooner than we think, but the title of this page makes it seem like Best Buy will stock a Cruzer Micro 1000GB on Monday morning.
Oh and Univ of AZ > Arizona State. :-)
ManekiNeko @ Oct 28th 2007 5:35AM
It'll come sooner than later, don't worry about that. I remember a time when a four gigabyte flash drive cost $700... and that time was only four years ago!