The Korean manufacturer unveiled a 512Mb (64MB) Phase-change Random Access Memory (PRAM) device at its sixth annual press conference in Seoul yesterday.
Samsung claims that PRAM is more scalable than any other memory architecture being researched and offers "the fast processing speed of RAM for its operating functions combined with the non-volatile features of Flash memory for storage, giving it the nickname perfect RAM".
PRam can rewrite data without having first to erase data previously stored, making it effectively 30 times faster than conventional Flash memory. It is also incredibly durable with an expected life span 10 times that of Flash memory.
Samsung's PRAM cells are half the size of traditional Flash modules and require 20 percent fewer steps to manufacture.
Adoption of PRAM is expected to be especially popular in the future designs of mobile phones and other portable devices, where faster speeds translate into immediately noticeable boosts in performance.