相变存储——关于存储的新可能

Phase-Change Memory

自从1950年由冯-诺依曼博士领导设计出世界上第一台具有存储程序功能的计算机EDVAC以来，存储技术的每个跨越式进步都促成了计算机和电子事业的阶段性革命。时间进入后PC时代，各方面的技术都获得了较大的突破：网络上，Wi-Fi和Wimax给人们带来了前所未有的宽带无线互联体验；处理器上，64位的计算高潮已经到来。唯独在存储器这一区域，在“摩尔定律”的预言下，遇到了技术上的“瓶颈”，除了不断降价，技术上却无从突破。这样看来，谁能在下一代存储技术上占得先机，无疑会在计算机领域接下来的争夺中获得巨大的利润。

What would be the next-generation memory? FRAM, MRAM, or nanowires? More and more experts agree on the technology based on phase-change materials. Two teams - Institute of Semiconductor Electronics at RWTH Aachen University in Germany, and a team at Royal Philips Electronics NV, in Amsterdam - have recently reported their new success in developing this storage technology. Compare to the traditional rewritable nonvolatile memory, such as flash, SRAM and DRAM, the phase-change memories have their absolute predominance in writing speed, rewritable cycles and capacity. Many leading electronics and semiconductor companies, among them AMD, Energy Conversion Devices, Intel, Panasonic, Philips, Sony, and ST Electronics, have maintained R&D programs to develop phase-change memories. As the technology is developing fast, it is quite believable that the phase-change memories will eventually occupy the market if the flash makers fail to make their memories with features as small as 45 nanometers.