NAND flash memory is immensely popular and it has finally started to show what it can really do with Solid State Drives. But even NAND flash has its limitations and Samsung hopes to take things to a new level with the so called PCM technology. We have been covering the development of Phase Change Memory over the last few years and now Samsung has revealed that it has started mass producing the first PCM chips.
As the name hints the PCM technology stores data by using the different phases of the material. You need two phases to represent either 1 or 0, and the phase change circuits switch between amorphous and crystalline shape for this very purpose.
Just like regular flash memory phase change memory lacks any moving parts but unlike the current storage technology it doesn’t need power to keep the phase “solid”, and thus also keep data intact, even when turned off. This makes phase change memories faster and more energy efficient than flash storage.
Phase change memory change phase by heating the cells with a current and then cool down at different speeds to take on either crystalline or amorphous phase. While flash memory are tricky to shrink due to electrons leaking from the transistors, the PCM technology could be better at smaller nodes and it has already been tested with 20nm technology.
Samsung’s new 512MB PCM chip are still too small to really challenge flash memory, but with the next generation mobile phones we may see some phase change memory in action.
Those who want to know more about PCM can turn to the video introduction posted by Numonyx.
