A few years from now, hard drives, as we know them today, will be rare in computers. Instead, they will have solid state "disks", says Intel CTO Justin Rattner, speaking at the Intel Developers Forum, in Beijing, China.
"Hard disks are frankly too power-hungry," he noted. Solid state disks, as contemplated by Intel, will consume a tenth of the power, yet be a 1 000 times more durable and have 10 times the performance.
"We believe solid state disks are one way of overcoming the limitation of hard disks. The result of this change will be a better user experience."
Flash memory will soon also be just that, rendered as obsolete as floppy and stiffie disks, he added. Phase change memory will take its place. The first 128MB chips for these are expected later this year.
While the utility of flash memory cannot be questioned, it has not turned out to be durable, typically lasting only a year. Rattner added that phase change memory, by contrast, will have a million write cycles, be non-volatile for up to 10 years and will be "no-erase-bit-alterable".
"This is just the beginning. This technology will replace D-RAM. I'm not saying how, but you need to watch this technology."
He added the company has worked on the nano-scale technology for "the better part of a decade" and was now keen to have it on the market.
Analysts at the Intel Developer Forum expect phase change memory to be ubiquitous within two years. Solid state disks will take a bit longer, as it depends on Intel's production programme and the final cost of the product.
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