Flash memory sticks are used by many of us to store files momentarily. With reference to the last point, one company has chosen to do something a little unique by developing a USB storage device that can keep its data for up to 200 years. Its has a major drawback, however: It can only store 8,192 bytes of storage.
Yeah, you did really read correctly. Not 8 gigabytes, not 8 megabytes—we’re talking 8 kilobytes of data. At most, that number of pages in a typical text file. Though it may appear an unusable small capacity, there is a very excellent reason for its modest size. German manufacturers Machdyne used a single ferromagnetic RAM chip for storage rather than industry-standard NAND flash.
With the exception of lacking billions of small dielectric capacitors to store data in the form of charge, ferromagnetic RAM, or FeRAM for short, functions somewhat like regular RAM. Rather, ferroelectric capacitors—which have a significant benefit in that they don’t require regular refreshment to maintain their charge—are used by FRAM. Provided perfect circumstances, the data won’t disappear for more than a century.
That’s far longer than any consumer-grade SSD available, where you’ll be lucky to obtain more than ten years of safe data retention, even if you use it once and store it away securely.
Although not as quickly as the newest DRAM kits, FRAM does function as quickly as NAND flash and has a very good write endurance limit. Sounds ideal doesn’t it? The drawback of FRAM is that, in comparison to flash and DRAM, it is far more expensive to manufacture and produced by relatively few companies.
Although the new device manufactured by Machdyne Blaustahl in Germany costs $31.78 (US dollars), as I mentioned, you only receive 8 kilobytes of FRAM. Most USB flash drives are well into the gigabyte size. That means you won’t be keeping any photos, videos, or crucial PDFs on it.
Still, 8 kilobytes is plenty to store a password or other important bits of information, so its endurance could come in handy for saving login information for your important websites. Although the gadget does not already enable encryption, Machdyne says that it intends to add it in the future through an open-source firmware upgrade.
Hidden under the device’s small circuit board are 4MB of NOR flash memory to hold an integrated text editor and a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller to handle the storage and USB Type-A interface. A little soldering can write-protect the FRAM, and should the RP2040 fail or USB ports completely vanish in the far future, the ferromagnetic RAM chip can be read straight from its connections
I only have one question: will computers 200 years in the future include a USB connector capable of reading and writing these new FRAM chips?