IBM unveils racetrack memory

BBC reports.

The demonstration involved racetrack memory - a system that stores information as magnetic patterns on tiny wires.

Racetrack memory is competing with such technologies as phase-change memory (PCM), triple-level cell (TLC) NAND, magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM) - even IBM's fading MEMS-based (and tr'es bizarre) Millipede effort, The Register notes.

The goal of IBM's racetrack memory research has been to fabricate a storage technology that marries hard drive capacities with flash memory speeds and knock-around ability. In a nutshell, racetrack memory involves sending magnetic "stripes" through nanowires, written by imparting spin to the electrons and read by an analogue to a hard drive's read head - except that the racetrack memory's read head detects the edges of the magnetic stripes rather than their polarity.

According to IT Pro Portal, the company has worked on this technology for the past decade. In 2008, it introduced a working prototype.

On Monday, the latest breakthrough was unveiled at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), held in Washington DC, by IBM.