ULTRARAM may be a silly name but it's the holy grail for memory tech and means your PC could hibernate for over 1,000 years
ULTRARAM is a new type of «universal memory» that can exceed the longevity of your SSD's flash storage and match the read/write speeds of system memory. But all with a lower power demand. This is kinda the holy grail of memory and could be a real game changer for computing. No wonder it's just won an award at the Flash Memory Summit.
Though, I've got to say ULTRARAM feels a bit on the nose if you ask me. But I don't care about the branding because the technology is potentially very exciting.
Effectively it's a type of memory that can theoretically be all things to all devices. But, inevitably, it's also rather complicated in its makeup, and it's at times like these I wish I was a lot smarter than I am. They should have sent… an engineer.
«Our patented memory technology uses quantum mechanical resonant-tunnelling,» reads the ULTRAM site, «to provide an unmatched combination of speed, non-volatility, endurance and energy efficiency.»
The brochure (PDF warning) for the technology goes on to explain that: «ULTRARAM is a charge-based memory that stores data by moving electrons into or out of a so-called 'floating gate'. The charge state of the floating gate is read non-destructively by measuring the conductance of an underlying 'channel'. The final component of the memory is the barrier that acts like a 'lock' to retain electrons in the floating gate during data retention. The barrier is unlocked to allow charge to flow when the memory is being written or erased.»
The technology comes from Quinas Technology, a company spun out of Lancaster University in the UK, where ULTRARAM was invented by Professor Manus Hayne of the university's physics department. Its appearance at the Flash Memory Summit is it's first showcase and it
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