Phase Memory Beats Flash

Flash memory and hard-disk drives could face a challenge from a new chip technology, dubbed phase-change memory, being developed by a group of companies led by IBM. The companies claim the technology does a better job of storing songs, pictures and other data on iPods and digital cameras than current flash memory, and could someday replace disk drives. The companies have built a prototype device that runs 500 times faster than today’s flash memory while using half as much power to write data to a memory cell