What Does the Future Hold for Memory Technology?

Every two years, your hard-earned dollar buys twice as much memory capacity. This “law” has held true for decades, and shows no sign of slowing. Sixty years ago, a state-of-the-art memory device was a tube full of mercury, with 500 bits of data stored as acoustic waves travelling up and down between transducers at either end. Today, Flash memory cards containing more than a hundred billion bits can be found at the supermarket, next to the chewing gum.

This relentless progress is the result of the hard work of thousands of researchers and engineers around the globe who are dedicated to advancing memory technology. A few hundred of those technologists (and this humble blogger) met earlier this week at the 2011 IEEE International Memory Workshop in Monterey, California to discuss the future of memory technology.

A highlight of the proceedings was a panel discussion, sponsored by Applied Materials, featuring experts (as pictured below) representing key players in the memory industry – Nokia, Samsung, Toshiba, Hynix and research institution imec.

The panel’s opinions and predictions weren’t always what I was expecting. To learn more, read the article at Solid State Technology Magazine.