New chips promise incredible lifetime at low voltage
Long-standing concerns regarding flash memory are failure
rates and short lifetimes. While the SSD
market is booming thanks to lower prices and strong marketing, many remain
skeptical. Among these skeptics are some major industry players such as
Seagate and Fujitsu, who both believe that the technology, while promising, is
not market ready.
A new breakthrough from Japan may soon change that. Japanese scientists
from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and
the University of Tokyo have developed memory chips that could
withstand hundreds of years of use. They also work at lower voltages
than tradition chips, promising power savings.
Most flash chips, such as those used in the memory cards for digital cameras or
the Nintendo Wii, only have an estimated lifetime of about a decade. Even
worse, some applications which require frequent reading and writing can wear
down cells much faster, sometimes ruining a flash device within only a few
years.
For computers, some common scenarios that can wear down SSDs prematurely
include the use of a swap file or virtual memory or frequent writes to log
files. Scientists estimate that high density flash circuits in their
current state, for lifetime and other reasons are unworkable below 20 nm.
With Intel already starting to prepare for 32 nm production, this limit is fast
approaching.
The Japanese scientists state that their new ferroelectric NAND flash cells can
scale much smaller, to a scant 10 nm. The scientists claim that the new
cells can be rewritten 100 million times, as opposed to current flash, which
can only support about 10,000 writes.
To further prolong the cell life, they employ a wear-leveling technology, in
which all cells are used equally, and overused cells are
"retired". The end result is lifetimes of 100+ years.
Additionally, the new ferroelectric cells operate at 6 volts or less.
Current flash cells use 20 V, meaning that the new cells will likely cut power
consumption by as much as a factor of 3.
The researchers hope to bring the technology to market within a couple years.
"If you can find a PS3 anywhere in North America that's been on shelves for more than five minutes, I'll give you 1,200 bucks for it." -- SCEA President Jack Tretton
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