Boffins at Cambridge University and Hitachi say their DRAM killer will be ready to go into production within five years. The device, called PLEDM (Phase state Low Electron hole number Drive Memory), may sound like something one would cough up after too many B&Hs, but it could have major implications for the future of electronics. PLEDM can instantly access and record vast amounts of data - a whole film could be stored on just one chip. It also consumes very little power, useful for the increasingly mobile world. DRAM has inherent limitations -- to provide a sufficiently high signal to noise ratio, it must be of a certain size, yet we want smaller and smaller components. The designers of the PLEDM had this in mind, and have come up with a new cell structure. Conventional DRAMs consist of one-transistor and one-capacitor cell, instead the new PLEDM cell uses two transistors to make a 'gain cell' in a smaller area. The boffins even reckon that one day, a fast non-volatile* PLEDM cell could replace a hard drive. *Memory is retained when the power is out. ® We like this technology so much that we've written aboutit before. Twice. On (nearly) the same day. Here are the links. Hitachi unveils DRAM, Flash killer Hitachi cracks 'movie on a chip' memory