Intel inches close to next-gen memory

SANTA CLARA, USA: Intel Corporation and its solid-state processor research affiliate Numonyx B.V. announced on Wednesday what they called a key breakthrough in the research of phase change memory (PCM), a new non-volatile memory technology that combines many of the benefits of today's various memory types.

For the first time, researchers have demonstrated a 64Mb test chip that enables the ability to stack, or place, multiple layers of PCM arrays within a single die, Intel said in a press release.

These findings pave the way for building memory devices with greater capacity, lower power consumption and optimal space savings for random access non-volatile memory and storage applications.

The achievements are a result of an ongoing joint research program between Numonyx and Intel that has been focusing on the exploration of multi-layered or stacked PCM cell arrays, which enabled the researchers at Intel and Numonyx to demonstrate a vertically integrated memory cell, called PCMS (phase change memory and switch).

PCMS comprises one PCM element layered with a newly used Ovonic Threshold Switch (OTS) in a true cross point array, said Intel.

This promises substantial gains in scalability, performance and power savings that are projected to be magnitudes better than what is possible in current solid-state and spinning disk storage, said Al Fazio, Intel fellow and director of memory technology development.

“We are encouraged by this research milestone and see future memory technologies, such as PCMS, as critical for extending the role of memory in computing solutions and in expanding the capabilities for performance and memory scaling,” he said.

Greg Atwood, senior technology fellow at Numonyx said the results are extremely promising.

"The results show the potential for higher density, scalable arrays and NAND-like usage models for PCM products in the future. This is important as traditional flash memory technologies face certain physical limits and reliability issues, yet demand for memory continues to rise in everything from mobile phones to data centers."

Memory cells are built by stacking a storage element and a selector, with several cells creating memory arrays. Intel and Numonyx researchers were able to deploy a thin film, two-terminal OTS as the selector, matching the physical and electrical properties for PCM scaling.

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