What is “Racetrack memory” and how is it different from other types of RAM?
IBM Racetrack Memory is an experimental non-volatile memory device under development at IBM’s Almaden Research Center by a team led by Stuart Parkin. In early 2008 a 3-bit version was successfully demonstrated.[2] Developed successfully, racetrack would offer storage density higher than comparable solid-state memory devices like Flash RAM and similar to conventional disk drives, but with much higher read/write performance. It is one of a number of new technologies vying to become a “universal memory” in the future. Description IBM Racetrack Memory uses spin-coherent electric current to move the magnetic domains along a nanoscopic permalloy wire about 200 nm across and 100 nm thick. As current is passed through the wire, the domains pass by magnetic read/write heads positioned near the wire, which alter the domains to record patterns of bits. An IBM Racetrack Memory device is made up of many such wires and read/write elements. In general operational concept, IBM Racetrack Memory is simi
