In a world where planes are constantly flying further and faster and where particles can be accelerated nearly to the speed of light, it’s no surprise that a new type of data storage has been proven to be faster than anything on the market. Scientists at UC San Diego performed an experiment that showed phase changing memory can beat some of the best off the shelf flash memory on the market. They were using a prototype phase changing module called Onyx made by Micron.

Of course this was only when writing small bits of data at a time. When doing so, the memory was able to achieve speeds that were 70 to 120 percent faster than its flash counterpart. When writing larger chunks of data, the drive was actually slower than flash memory. Nonetheless, the phase changing memory was faster at reading data of any size and placed a significantly smaller load on the CPU when used. Phase changing memory also has the added benefit of being able to write on demand without having to keep tables or logs like flash memory does.

Besides the uptick in speeds, the most fascinating part of phase changing memory is how it works. These chips work by storing data in a metal alloy called chalcogenide. In order to write memory, small bursts of heat switch sections of the material between its crystalline state or an amorphous arrangement that represent either a 0 or a 1. These 0s and 1s are then translated by the CPU into a digital file.

In practical terms, this increase in read times means that RAID drives and internal drives using this kind of memory should help editors save time when editing and rendering – especially in an era of large HD video file sizes. Also, this memory has been shown to have an average life of 100 million write cycles compared to a paltry 100,000 for NAND flash, meaning that these drives might be around just long enough to seem rather slow.

Here’s an amazing story: A professor in Sweden, having placed his laptop outside of his apartment unattended, inevitably had his laptop stolen. That’s not the amazing part. The amazing part was that a week later, the professor received a USB stick in the mail – complete with all of his files backed up on it. Now you could call this a considerate thief (or at least more considerate than usual – since he did steal the laptop after all), but quite honestly with the price and size of USB memory these days, there was probably no consideration involved. Instead, with a 16 GB USB thumb drive going for 25 dollars or less, it was probably the least that guy felt he could do. The crazy part is that just a few short years ago, USB memory sticks were so expensive that if that same thief mailed one to the professor, it may have been good enough to put a down payment on a brand new laptop. Instead, even thieves are literally giving them away now.

With the onset of cheaper SSD drives, hard disk drive prices have taken a bigger nosedive than Mel Gibson’s career. In that same manner, Western Digital just announced the first 3 TB hard drive that comes in at only $240. Each platter on this massive drive can write up to 750 GB worth of data while supposedly running whisper quiet. That seems to be a pretty sensible price for a drive considering that just a year ago a 1 TB hard drive could come in at the same price. All things considered, it’s nice to know that the progress of technological innovation seems to be going as fast as ever – all at an affordable price.

Reprinted from a Western Digital press release:

Western Digital® today announced that it has commenced volume shipments of its 9.5 mm high, 2.5-inch notebook hard drive with 640 GB capacity. The WD Scorpio® Blue(TM) 640 GB hard drives utilize 320 GB-per-platter technology and are designed for mainstream notebook computers. The WD Scorpio Blue 640 GB is the highest capacity 2.5-inch hard drive available today in the industry-standard 9.5 mm, 2-disk form factor.
The new WD Scorpio Blue 640 GB drive has a 30 percent reduction in overall power consumption from the previous generation WD Scorpio Blue drive to achieve best-in-class power and performance(1), making it an ideal solution for notebook computers and other portable devices that require extended battery life and cool, quiet operation. Read the rest of this entry »