16th June 2008, 9:47 AM by Eric M. Zeman Researchers
at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
and the University of Tokyo in Japan have created new Flash memory
technology that would allow Flash memory chips to have a lifetime that
would span hundreds of years. Current Flash chips have a life
expectancy of about 10 years, depending on how much they are written
to. More reading/writing can cause the cells within Flash memory chips
to expire sooner, rendering the chip useless after less than 10 years
of life. The new ferroelectric Nand Flash memory cell developed by the
Japanese scientists can be written to 100 million times, scaled down to
10 nanometers, and uses only 6 volts of electricity, less than
one-third of today's chips' 20-volt draw. MicroSD cards, which are
widely used in cell phones to expand file storage, rely on Flash memory
chips. more at VNU Net ยป
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