News and other tidbits that Chad Cloman finds interesting enough to share
IBM is developing a new type of memory, called racetrack, that may be a Flash-killer. The article doesn’t say much about it replacing volatile RAM, aside from a brief mention of racetrack being a “universal” memory.
Link: http://www.montrealgazette.com/…
(via digg)
Kim Komando explains why you probably don’t need more than 3GB of RAM for a standard 32-bit Windows machine. In the old days, video cards had to manage with the 384KB of memory space between 640KB and 1MB. Now some use half of the 4GB space defined in 32-bit systems. She also predicts that we’re going to see 64-bit computers become more popular—especially for gamers with cutting-edge video cards.
Link: http://komando.com/…
The linked article has a nice explanation of the various types of DDR memory.
Link: http://www.komando.com/…
With the popularity of flash memory, it’s easy to forget that flash cells have a limited number of writes before they start failing—typically between 100,000 and 1 million. While this is probably more than enough for the casual user, it’s a good idea to remember that old flash memory may not be reliable.
Link: http://www.komando.com/…
Samsung has developed a potential replacement for flash memory, Phase-change Random Access Memory (PRAM). It’s 30 times faster than flash, lasts 10 times longer, and is less expensive to manufacture. Expect to see it in 2008.
A company named Freescale has gone into mass production with magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM). Its speed is much faster than Flash, but about an order of magnitude slower than current DRAM. If they can get the capacity increased (currently about 512KB), look for this to replace Flash memory. And if they can get the capacity and speed issues resolved, look for it to replace DRAM.
Memory prices are expected to go up in the next few months, so buy now or pay later.
Chad Cloman
Denver, CO USA
