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    Flash memory breakthrough could lead to even more reliable data storage

    By Raymond Wong | BGR News – Tue, Dec 4, 2012

    Although NAND flash, the storage that’s found in smartphones, tablets and many computers today, is faster than traditional platter-based hard drives, it does have its limitations as well. For starters, NAND flash storage is usually only good for about 10,000 read/write cycles before it fails. Taiwanese engineers from Macronix plan to announce at the 2012 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting that it has figured out how to improve NAND flash storage read/write cycles from 10,000 to 100 million cycles using a “self-healing” process that uses a flash chip with “onboard heaters that could anneal small groups of memory cells.” The result is a chip that can be erased and rewritten on over and over, even when it should theoretically break down. As promising as Macronix’s breakthrough could be for the mobile industry, there are no plans for a commercial product to be released any time in the near future.


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    11 comments

    • Post
      Post  •  16 days ago
      "There are no plans for a commercial product to be released any time in the near future." Of course not all the corporations want things to break otherwise how would they keep selling?
    • APEX-ROGUE
      APEX-ROGUE  •  16 days ago
      Etching symbol into rock was pretty reliable.
      Ask Moses......
    • Jake
      Jake  •  16 days ago
      Thank the aliens for this technology.
    • Richard
      Richard  •  16 days ago
      When Reagan started the "Service Economy" in America; the need for Engineers and Scientists began to diminish and the numbers of kids who wanted to be Engineers and Scientists diminished as well since the jobs went away. It's not a school problem; it's attitude and Jobs availability. We're starting to re-train; but it takes time.
    • Gverwtfr
      Gverwtfr  •  16 days ago
      Typically, they've always added the ingredient of planned obsolescence. I've also heard of this in the software of printers limiting copies and or cycles, that can be hacked and reset. Printers have also been said to reject refilled cartridges. One I had bought, my printer apparently just emptied it within a day or so. They've got you ' buy the ink '

      In my area where I live, I've read it's now illegal to dispose of electronics and also added a fee of $10.00 per unit to turn in for recycling. Best Buy supposedly recycles some of these for free.
    • Hendrix_fan
      Hendrix_fan  •  16 days ago
      "on board heaters"...Well that means it ain't going to smartphones or tablets. It looks nice on paper, but the challenge is to actually find an application for it based on cost and usability.
    • S
      S  •  16 days ago
      With the average life cycle of a cell phone now measured in months, this technology is *never* going to make it into cell phones.
    • FredW
      FredW  •  16 days ago
      Just how long do they consider a "read/write cycle" though? That seems kind of vague...
    • Alexander
      Alexander  •  16 days ago
      I boot off a USB 3.0, 64gb Flash thumb drive running Windows 7/8, or Linux, or Solaris, or FreeBSD, or Apple OS-X Lion, etc.... Try the Kingston Data Traveler R30. They work fine for the money. Or the SanDisk Extreme lll SD card.....Allot less expensive and portable than an SSD or Harddrive.
      • Michael Vick's dog
        Michael Vick's dog 16 days ago
        Lazy question, but are the access times of usb 3.0 comparable to SSD?
    • Stefan
      Stefan  •  16 days ago
      ooh #$%$...9999 pretty sure.. pretty sure...better not delete another song.
    • Paul
      Paul  •  16 days ago
      Holy crap! You mean my flash USB drive is only good for 10,000 read/write cycles!!!! I use my drive all the time... I guess I better back up my back up!
     Post a comment

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