Researchers from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a nanowire based memory system that has the potential to vastily increase digital storage densities.

The experimental data-storage device uses "core-shell nanowires" to store three possible states: a '0', '1', and '2'. Each nanowire contains two different phase-changing materials that are able to switch between a crystalline and amorphous state. 

Having a third available electric state could conceivably exponentially increase the amount of information stored in a device using these nanowires. It is perhaps also conceivable that this sort of technology could help further contribute to the development of quantum computers, which also operate beyond binary, with so-called 'qubits' that are capable of recognizing three states: off, on, and a third state which is a quantum superimposition of both on and off.