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In even more "future tech" news, Micron announced today that it has started mass production of a 45nm phase change memory solution for mobile devices. Phase change memory -- so called because it uses heat from an electrical current to flip between varying physical states -- is considered a possible successor, or at least competitor, to Flash in the non-volatile memory market. Micron's chip is the first phase change memory solution to become widely available in quantity.
Micron's 1.8V chip actually contains both 1Gb of phase change memory and 512Mb of low-power DDR2 memory, which share the same interface. The company hopes this initial solution will become popular in feature phones -- unsurprising, given the low total memory amount on the chip. Future designs will target other mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Phase change memory erases cells at the bit level rather than in entire blocks, which makes it faster and more efficient than Flash when it comes to writing data. As far as reading data goes, hopping over to Micron's mobile PCM FAQ page shows that the chip hits random read times of 400MBps -- none too shabby, especially for a first-generation product. Micron says PCM offers faster boot times, as well.
Like Flash, phase change memory has a limited lifecycle, but since each cell can represent multiple bits thanks to their shifty nature, PCM can theoretically last longer than Flash. Micron's new technology is rated for 100,000-plus write cycles.
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nschmidt00
July 17, 2012 at 5:59pm
Are Ferrari's reliable? For the most part yes, but parts do break service issues do come up. I have been using the Intel 520 Series 120GB SSD as my main boot drive in my latest system build. 1.5 TB caviar black for back up and storage purposes of course. I would not go back to a traditional HDD. I guess for servers sure go with traditional disc drives where data security/reliability is essential. Intel SSD have a 5yr warranty.
vrmlbasic
July 17, 2012 at 12:43pm
Under load, my Droid RAZR can get pretty toasty. It's pretty cool that they seem to have concocted a substance that changes phase based upon temperature, and that the substance is resilient enough to not undergo an unwanted phase change when the phone gets hot but yet doesn't require so much heat to become impractical for wanted phase changes.
Flash isn't reliable enough for you? You're missing out, not even a "server grade HDD" compares in performance. If my SSD craps out prematurely, it'll go out with a bang. As they say, "live fast, die young, and leave a [potentially still readable] corpse." ;)
Neufeldt2002
July 17, 2012 at 12:30pm
This is getting exciting. First Flash, and now Phase Change. Just hope reliability is included in this, as Flash based is not reliable enough for me to jump in with SSD tech yet. I want to, but I just purchased a server grade HDD for my OS drive because of SSD reliability issues.
Peanut Fox
July 17, 2012 at 4:55pm
The flash memory itself is extremely reliable. Failures that occur with SSDs are most often due to poor software or controllers.
Bullwinkle J Moose
July 17, 2012 at 1:12pm
Please specify which SSD is more reliable than, for example, the most reliable Western Digital 5400 RPM Laptop drive?
If you say OCZ.....WRONG ANSWER!
Intel or Samsung.....possibly but we won't know for a while yet
Neufeldt2002
July 17, 2012 at 1:04pm
I'll agree to disagree with you on that. Many find them extremely reliable I will give you that, but I with many others don't.
ddimick
July 17, 2012 at 1:20pm
SSD endurance is more clear than you make it out to be.
In consumer environments SSD endurance is roughly on par with hard drive MTBF.
In server environments SSD endurance is substantially worse than hard drive MTBF.
Choose accordingly.
Bullwinkle J Moose
July 17, 2012 at 1:26pm
again, you need to specify which SSD
Just read a few hundred horror stories over at the OCZ forum or count the bad reviews vs good reviews at Newegg get my point
Brand Matters!
Peanut Fox
July 17, 2012 at 5:08pm
OCZ SSDs are fine. The problem they encountered was the same as anyone else who got early Sanforce 2281 parts. OCZ was fortunate or unfortunate enough to just have sold a ton of them. To their credit they were not only first in releasing a fix, they were extremely fast in doing so.
Mortal_M
July 18, 2012 at 8:18am
Also, people don't go to forums and start a new thread to say how reliable their HDD are, however if it breaks then they'll rush there to start complaining.
That's the big problem with those reviews/posts
