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Racetrack Memory May Arrive in 5-7 Years (2010)
Computer memory and storage have always followed the Law of Closet Space. No matter how much you have, you shortly discover that it isn't enough.So it's good news that scientists in Switzerland are working on racetrack memory, shock-proof memory that they say is 100,000 times faster and consumes less power than current hard disks.
Every time a computer boots up, two to three minutes are lost while information is transferred from the hard disk into RAM (random access memory), explained Kläui in a statement. “The bits of information stored in the wire are simply pushed around inside the tape using a spin polarized current, attaining the breakneck speed of several hundred meters per second in the process,” he says. The technical details (which are far beyond my understanding, though maybe not yours) are published in the journal Physical Review Letters, and the results were confirmed by scientists at the IBM Zurich Research Center in a Viewpoint article, The alphabet of spin in nanostructures.
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