Racetrack Memory

Well, it looks like IBM is at it again because "...if an idea that Stuart S. P. Parkin is kicking around in an I.B.M. lab here is on the money, electronic devices could hold 10 to 100 times the data in the same amount of space. That means the iPod that today can hold up to 200 hours of video could store every single TV program broadcast during a week on 120 channels." Or, in other words, this could mean universal memory able to be implemented on chip and disk, thus freeing up the industry to make memory able to fit any type of use. This also can accelerate the move away from rotational memory and the hassles that accompany it (fragility, power consumption, form factor, access speed and reliability) if the tech is cheap and easy to produce, something that is doable considering the track record of Parkin.
Skeptics abound (hard disk manufacturers) but the need to improve memory is certainly there given the fact flash memory is slow, expensive, has limited rewrite life & storage capbility while hard drives are tens of thousands of time slower than CPUs.

Addentum: What's really amazing is that this may be an "interim" development given the fact IBM has already published papers on molecular memory (and switches), tech that will store millions of times more data than what is being discussed here.

"Rust never sleeps." - Neil Young