IBM demonstrates first multi bit phase change memory

The sample created, said to be the first in the world, has a latency of 10microseconds and is several orders of magnitude more reliable, with 10million estimated write cycles. The researchers believe it could be used to enable computers and servers to boot instantaneously and significantly enhance the overall performance of future IT systems. "As organisations and consumers increasingly embrace cloud computing models and services, ever more powerful and efficient, yet affordable storage technologies are needed," said Dr Haris Pozidis, manager of memory and probe technologies at IBM Research. "By demonstrating a multi bit phase change memory technology which achieves, for the first time, reliability levels akin to those required for enterprise applications, we made a big step towards enabling practical memory devices based on multi bit PCM." To achieve their breakthrough demonstration, the IBM scientists used advanced modulation coding techniques to mitigate the problem of short term drift in multi bit PCM. According to Dr Pozidis, this lack of reliability was the main obstacle to its use. Now that this problem has been solved, he believes the technology could enable a 'paradigm shift' for enterprise IT and storage systems within the next five years. IBM's test chip was based on 90nm cmos technology and was able to prove long term retention of bits stored in a sub array of 200,000 PCM cells for a period of more than five months. The company believes it will offer significant advances in the development of low cost, faster and more durable memory applications for consumer devices such as smartphones and cloud storage.