New Chip to Let iPods Hold 500,000 Songs
You're not going blind and that's not a typo.
In the current issue of Science, researchers at IBM unveiled a new type of media storage technology they say could give MP3 players the ability to store around 500,000 songs or 3,500 movies.
O M G.
It's called "racetrack" memory and it involves using the "spin" of an electron to store data. More explicitly, the researchers were able to "store data in columns of magnetic material arranged on the surface of a silicon wafer. The information moves around the columns at high speed, giving the technology its racetrack name."
The technology is similar to flash memory in that it has no moving parts and is unlikely to mechanically malfunction. Unlike flash memory however, it will not wear out after a few thousand uses. Oh yeah, and it's faster. A lot faster.
The biggest, baddest MP3 player on the market right now is the iPod Classic. It has 160-gigabytes (GB) of memory and holds up to 40,000 songs . We know what you're thinking. Weak Sauce. Don't throw away that old POS yet though, since devices boasting "racetrack" memory won't be in stores until around 2018. And yes, we know that's poop.
From Science (via TimesOnline and Engadget)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Paul J @ Apr 14th 2008 9:07AM
Incredible. You can only imagine what will come next...
Dave @ Apr 14th 2008 9:53AM
Doesn't this sound a lot like the magnetic bubble memory used in the SSDs of the 1980s mainframes? That technology ultimately failed when a bubble was zapped by alpha/beta particles in the background radiation, altering data. What's to prevent a spontaneous spin reversal in racetrack with the same reslults?
Raj @ Apr 14th 2008 12:41PM
Now now, these new chips are not even close to letting iPods hold 500,000 songs. Use accurate headlines please! Everyone knows that memory only doubles every six months, so no one will believe your story.
Jason White @ Apr 14th 2008 9:42PM
lol... what the consumer gets is always years behind research tech anyway.
Davin Peterson @ Apr 14th 2008 3:02PM
iPod's aren't the only, what about the Creative Zen? Creative invented the iPod interface and it's first ZEN out a year before the ipod. The Zen is best known for their quality sound and are stylish. They offer more for less. Creative invented beat Apple with the world's first 32GB flash player.
wixostrix @ Apr 15th 2008 2:15AM
okay i guess this may be exciting news, but like thats 10 years from now and i would only expect that far from now we'd be able to have some high capacity devices like that. idk thats cool tho.