Solid state standard
DRAM drives deliver performance and durability beyond anything available in
flash and could find enterprise use if price and density barriers were overcome. This would allow for "instant on" for servers and other devices, and eliminate the mechanical
latency and failures of spinning media.
In components, the main players are IBM, Intel, Freescale, Hitachi Data Systems, Ovonyx, Samsung and ST Microelectronics. For products, the big names are Aspacia, BitMicro, Dynamic Solutions International and Texas
Memory Systems. More interesting is who isn't playing: EMC, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi Storage, IBM
Storage and Sun Microsystems. The new nonvolatile technologies, such as
MRAM or phase-change RAM, don't have the cost-density ratio these companies need for mass deployment.
Nonflash, RAM-based nonvolatile storage will be a niche market until technology changes let it challenge flash RAM and/or magnetic hard-disk technology with similar cost-density characteristics. It's unlikely any significant breakthroughs will happen until 2011.