Researchers reckon they have found a type of memory that could, one day, replace DRAM and flash. CHIPMAKERS have tried for years to find the perfect memory: something that is fast, cheap and remembers what you put into it when you power down. Despite 40 years of trying, nothing exists on the market that gives you three out of three. There are very few electronic systems out there that can get away with just one form of memory inside for storing data. Power meters and radio-frequency tags make use of ferroelectric memory to keep data for long periods of time without having to power it. Even in those systems, the code will sit in flash memory or even cheaper mask-programmed memory because the ferroelectric memory cells are comparatively expensive.
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