SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 11: A team of scientists announced a breakthrough in computer memory technology on Monday that heralded more sophisticated and reliable MP3 players, digital cameras and other devices.

Scientists from IBM, Macronix and Qimonda said they developed a material that made “phase-change” memory 500 to 1,000 times faster than the commonly-used “flash” memory, while using half as much power.

“You can do a lot of things with this phase-change memory that you can't do with flash,” IBM senior manager of nanoscale science Spike Narayan said.

“You can replace disks, do instant-on computers, or carry your own fancy computer application in your hand. It would complement smaller technology if manufacturers wanted to conjure things up.” Technical details of the research were to be presented to engineers gathered at the 2006 International Electronic Devices Meeting in San Francisco.

Researchers expected the discovery to anoint phase-change memory the successor to flash memory as the electronics industry continues a relentless quest to make devices smaller and more powerful.

“These results dramatically demonstrate that phase-change memory has a very bright future,” said IBM vice president of technology T.C. Chen.

“Many expect flash memory to encounter significant scaling limitations in the near future. Today we unveil a new phase-change memory material that has high performance even in an extremely small volume.”

The new material was a complex semiconductor alloy that resulted from collaborative research at IBM's Almaden Research Centre in the Silicon Valley city of San Jose, California.

At the heart of phase-change memory is a tiny chunk of alloy that can be changed rapidly between an ordered, crystalline phase and a disordered, amorphous phase.

Because no electrical power is required to maintain either phase of the material, phase-change memory is “non-volatile.” ”This is a much more robust memory technology,” Mr Narayan said. “It will be used more and more as flash gets into more and more trouble at small dimensions.”—AFP