Posted on 07/06/2011 2:38:25 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- International Business Machines Corp. researchers have developed technology that allows an emerging type of memory to store data more reliably for longer periods of time on items like servers.
The technology is called phase-change memory, or PCM, which is seen as an alternative to flash. Flash has proved popular for use in mobile devices but is considered to have limitations, such as in high-end business infrastructure.
IBM on Thursday said it has developed a PCM chip that effectively can double a device's memory capacity--in comparison to other PCM chips--while maintaining a low error rate. PCM chips can experience problems the longer the data are stored.
"One problem with phase change has been the resilience of it," said Claus Egge, an independent research analyst. "If you store things for a very long time, you have to have a lot of error corrections to be able to retrieve the data."
Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM said its improvements will allow for lower-cost, faster and more durable memory for consumer devices and data center products. IBM will likely license the technology rather than manufacture PCM itself. The company makes about $1 billion in income a year from licensing its technology.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
fyi
Years ago many people called IBM a "dinosaur" because they thought everyone would move off the mainframe.
The discoveries, developments, and innovations of the IBM lab personnel continue to amaze me.
They must be doing something right. They still make money and their stock price stability reflects that.
It’s called massive offshoring of everything they can, including R&D. I seem to recall that at last count the percentage of their employees still in America was somewhere in the high 30’s or at best low 40’s.
This PCM has been in the trade mags for a while now - maybe it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread and night baseball combined but so far it’s always been described as futureware. Proof of concept and getting something in 100’s of millions of devices are two different things. We’ll see.
good engineers, terrible managers and technical reps and sales people.
The wal-mart of IT.
“The discoveries, developments, and innovations of the IBM lab personnel continue to amaze me.”
IBM is a ‘global’ company. They are partners with the Chinese.
I agree with you to a point. The company, however, is increasingly services based. It does services around the world so it is reasonable that their employment should reflect that. They do still make the majority of their hardware here in the US.
That' reflects a bit of a change. IBM does a lot of services these days, and those services are international. Thus, they have a lot of local employees of foreign subsidiaries counting towards the foreign percentage.
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