Features - Enterprise Data Insights:

NANOSTORAGE MKT - $66 BILLION BY 2011

By 2011, the market for nano-engineered information storage devices will be worth $65.7 billion, according to a new report from NanoMarkets LC, a nanotechnology industry analysis firm. The new report provides forecasts and analysis of the markets for MRAM, FRAM, holographic memory, ovonic unified memory, molecular memory, nanotube RAM, MEMS-based memory and polymer memory, all of which are expected to generate initial revenues in the next couple of years. Further information about the report -- including a full table of contents -- can be found at www.nanomarkets.net/.

Key points made in the report are:

• By 2011, nanostorage technology will have penetrated close to 40 percent of the disk drive and memory chip businesses, which by then are expected to total $166 billion in revenue.
• Memory requirements for tomorrow's pervasive computing go beyond the capabilities of conventional DRAM, SRAM and flash. Pervasive computing -- an environment filled with always-on highly mobile comuting, communications, storage and sensing devices -- demands fast, inexpensive memory for smart cards, sensors, etc., and high capacity non-volatile memory for mobile computers and handheld communications devices. Nanostorage technologies can meet these requirements.
• Nanostorage is potentially highly disruptive for the disk drive industry. It alters the boundaries between the disk drives and memory chips -- high-capacity, non-volatile nanostorage chips are a potential low-cost replacement for minidisk drives in portable entertainment devices and computers. In addition, holographic memory and MEMS-based memory offer significant capacity improvements over today's disk drives.
• High-density, small footprint nanostorage technologies will enable a new generation of consumer devices, such as portable HDTV players, as well as new media formats based around holographic memory.

DRAM, SRAM and flash will continue to exist for decades. But with powerful backers such as AMD, Cypress Semiconductor, Freescale, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, Hitachi, IBM, Infineon, Intel, Matsushita, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments, nanostorage seems certain to take a big bite out of the conventional memory and disk business. Major chip suppliers will continue to dominate, but NanoMarkets also sees opportunities for newer firms, such as ZettaCore and Nantero. NanoMarkets foresees the possibility that as the result of innovations in nanostorage an important new semiconductor company could be created.

The new report, Nanostorage: The Impact of Nanotechnology On Memory, Disk Drives and Other Storage Devices -- A Technology and Market Assessment for 2004-2011, assesses the commercial viability of the latest storage technologies and includes detailed eight-year forecasts, broken out by technology and application segment. The report also profiles the nanostorage product and technology strategies of both large disk and memory suppliers and of start-up suppliers. Special attention is given to the applications that are driving the need for nano-based storage and memory solutions.

NanoMarkets' mission is to measure the impact of nanotechnology on the communications, computing, semiconductor, defense, medical electronics and energy sectors, and to provide both qualitative and quantitative assessments of the opportunities available to companies operating within these markets. Through its reports, market briefs and customized client engagements, NanoMarkets' clients are able to receive insightful value-chain analyses that determine where and how nanotechnology will impact both their business operations and profit potential.