IBM Quietly Takes a Stake in Spansion's Racetrack Memory

Via BetaNews.com -

After quietly taking an equity stake in two-year-old startup flash memory manufacturer Spansion, IBM now plans to augment its own still emerging, futuristic "racetrack" memory with flash memory dubbed MirrorBit.

IBM envisions its highly non-volatile, endlessly rewritable racetrack memory (RM) technology as capable of storing 3,500 movies on a single handheld MP3 player within the next decade. Now, under a cross-licensing deal officially announced today, IBM will work with the world's #1 producer of NOR flash memory, Spansion, to produce RM.

Together, the two will co-develop RM, a magnetic medium with no moving parts, and MirrorBit, a "charge trapping" technology designed to increase the density of a flash memory array while keeping costs down on manufacturing.

As a particular target, the two companies are honing in on China, where Spansion employs more than 1,300 people at design centers in Beijing and Suzhou, a manufacturing plant in Suzhou, and three sales and marketing offices.

Already in use by the top ten automotive OEMs, MirrorBit is also utilized in embedded systems ranging from gaming machines and wireless devices to telecom networking equipment.