What about RAM?

According to Professor Paul Heremans of the University of Leuven in Belgium, circuit designers looking for the best performance often have to combine several memory types on the same chip. This adds complexity and cost.
 
Computer chips are shrinking, from 130 nanometres (nm) in 2000 to 45 nm today, with more components added to them. This development is demanding that RAM becomes faster, power saving and non-volatile.
 
Existing memory technologies are good for several more generations, Heremans added, but are unlikely to make the transition to 22 nm (scheduled for 2011) or 16 nm (2018).
 
Emerging Materials for Mass-storage Architectures (EMMA) – an EU programme - is taking up the challenge to extend the life of RAM. The project is currently working on new materials and metal oxides efficient enough to grow with the demands of RAM.
 
Low-cost polymer memory could also be important in RFID tags (radio frequency identification) for the remote identification of goods, equipment and people.