FLASH IN THE PAN The microscopic switch—consisting of two clus-
Researchers at IBM Almaden Research Center have ters of
molecules positioned just 32 millionths of demonstrated the
feasibility of a class of data storage a millimeter apart—allows
scientists to easily called racetrack memory that combines the
data stor- manipulate an electrical field. By placing these age
of a magnetic hard disk with the speed and switches on a gold or
carbon surface, they could strength of flash memory at
relatively low cost. Tech- fit up to one billion transistors on
a single chip. nology Review reports that, unlike flash,
racetrack The technology could also be used in other elec-memory
would not degrade over time. A recent Science trical devices,
such as DVD players, to increase article depicted racetrack
memory as an array of bil- memory and performance. Says Cronin:
“The lions of nanowires on silicon. Each nanowire is able to
fact that these switches work on carbon means hold hundreds of
bits of data, encoded by changing th