Hard drive declared obsolete by Cambridge scientists

A team of Cambridge scientists, sponsored by Hitachi, yesterday heralded a breakthrough in semiconductor technology that could spell the end for hard drives.

The new chip - the size of a traditional transistor - will hold its memory even if the power supply fails, making it a feasible replacement for the hard drive. Computer hard drives have failed to increase in performance at the same rate as other computer systems due to the their reliance on moving parts. The researchers say their new chip bypasses those problems with a read/write time of less than 10nsec.

The chip employs technology, called PLEDMTM (Phase-state Low Electron(hole)-number Drive Memory), which replaces the usual one transistor, one capacitor cell with a cell made from two transistors. This helps it provide a large signal from low power and could pave the way for miniaturisation of storage devices capable of multi-gigabit memory.

Jon Collins, senior analyst at Bloor Research, agreed the breakthrough was significant: "The potential applications are limitless - this could really drive the device revolution with powerful computers the size of wristwatches and beyond. Hard drives will have a hard time keeping up with this."