A microchip which can store information like a hard drive has been unveiled by US company Freescale.
The chip, called magnetoresistive random-access memory (Mram), maintains data by relying on magnetic properties rather than an electrical charge.
One analyst told the Associated Press news agency that the chip was the most significant development in computer memory for a decade.
Mram chips could find their way into many different electronic devices.
Magnetorestrictive memory existed back in the 1970′s. There were various types including magnetic bubble memory. It would have made further progress back then for consumer applications, but the constantly dropping prices of hard drives made it not cost effective for consumer use. Government and military applications continued to use it however.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_bubble_memory
I cant wait for these chips to replace hard drives. One day soon we will be able to boot our computer in 5 seconds!
Buy your Freescale stock now. Unless too costly this sounds like the best of both worlds between RAM and flash. Could put flash out of business if cheap enough!