IBM, 1950s inventor of modern hard drives, is said to be working on a
new technology to replace their creation.
Saving files to memory is something that's supposed to be mostly invisible for the end user. We don't need to think about it; it just has to work. But whether it's a solid-state or hard disk drive, conventional storage solutions have their limitations -- namely, speed, rewritability and durability. A team at IBM Research's Almaden facility in California has a cure for all of that and it's called "racetrack memory."
The new technology is said to be far faster than solid state, and far more durable.
Oldest drive I've use: IBM 10Meg hard drive. Used it as an end table. It was short of 3' tall and weighed about 100 pounds.