Scientists at IBM are starting to think that the age of manipulating
magnetic fields are a thing of the past and new RAM based around
spin-polarised electrons are the future.
IBM researchers have teamed up with TDK to develop spin torque transfer RAM (random access memory) or STT-RAM. According to News.com, STT-RAM uses an electric current applied to a magnet to change the direction of the magnetic field.
This causes a change in resistance, and the different levels of resistance register as 1s or 0s. Big Blue and TDK hope to have a 65-nanometer prototype within the next four years. IBM had been researching magnetic memory called MRAM but was having trouble shrinking the transistors on the chips.
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