UK Digital Cameras Blog

Digital camera owners could soon be getting a memory boost after it was revealed that US scientists are developing a new device for consumer electronics.

Researchers from Arizona State University’s Centre for Applied Nanoionics (CANi) say they have used old materials to develop the ‘new memory’ which will improve the performance, battery life and capacity of laptops, mp3s, cameras and mobile phones.

Using nanoionics, a method of moving tiny matter around a chip, the team has developed a memory which is less limited than current storage techniques.

“What it means is we could replace all of the memory in all sorts of applications - from laptops to iPods to cell phones to whatever - with this one type of memory,” said Michael Kozicki, director of CANi.

“Because it is so low energy, we can pack a lot of memory and not drain battery power; and it’s not volatile - you can switch everything off and retain information.”

The new memory will be available to consumers within the next few years, according to the team.