Scientists May Have Discovered Universal Memory, DRAM Replacement

erek

[H]F Junkie
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Please delete if re-post. This is certainly interesting!

"Simulations of Ultralow-Power Nonvolatile Cells for Random-Access Memory

Dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), which represents 99% of random-access memory (RAM), is fast and has excellent endurance, but suffers from disadvantages such as short data-retention time (volatility) and loss of data during readout (destructive read). As a consequence, it requires persistent data refreshing, increasing energy consumption, degrading performance, and limiting scaling capacity. It is, therefore, desirable that the next generation of RAM will be nonvolatile RAM (NVRAM), have low power, have high endurance, be fast, and be nondestructively read. Here, we report on a new form of NVRAM: a compound-semiconductor charge-storage memory that exploits quantum phenomena for its operational advantages. Simulations show that the device consumes very little power, with 100 times lower switching energy per unit area than DRAM, but with similar operating speeds. Nonvolatility is achieved due to the extraordinary band offsets of InAs and AlSb, providing a large energy barrier (2.1 eV), which prevents the escape of electrons. Based on the simulation results, an NVRAM architecture is proposed for which extremely low disturb-rates are predicted as a result of the quantum-mechanical resonant-tunneling mechanism used to write and erase."


https://www.extremetech.com/computi...-discovered-universal-memory-dram-replacement
 
"The actual device hasn’t been fabricated yet, only simulated. The next step, presumably, would be demonstrating that the device works in practice as well as it does on paper."

in other words it's still in the "theory" phase which means well, nothing really as far as end users are concerned. But it is an interesting concept :barefoot:
 
"The actual device hasn’t been fabricated yet, only simulated. The next step, presumably, would be demonstrating that the device works in practice as well as it does on paper."

in other words it's still in the "theory" phase which means well, nothing really as far as end users are concerned. But it is an interesting concept :barefoot:

In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice.
 
I'm not looking forward to universal memory. With that big of a change to the basics of computing it's going to cause all kinds of problems that will take a long time to solve.
 
"The actual device hasn’t been fabricated yet, only simulated. The next step, presumably, would be demonstrating that the device works in practice as well as it does on paper."

in other words it's still in the "theory" phase which means well, nothing really as far as end users are concerned. But it is an interesting concept :barefoot:
Theoretically, wouldn't it be in the hypothesis phase, since they haven't done any practical experiments yet?
 
Universal Memory? I need that. I know I go to the Memory subforum and go, "Why am I here?"
 
It appears to be a British Theory, making it less than likely. The last original and cutting edge thing the british came up with was a jet engine. Oh wait, germans did that too - not original.
 
In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice.

E8842E15A803ACAE910D515176449B4503022FA8.jpg
 
I'm intrigued - not only is DRAM destructive, it's also not dense at all.

Even if this can't be stacked, it's likely to be denser than DRAM. And if it ca n be, then memory use in games is going to go through the roof; get ready for AI-drawn scapes with massive levels of detail!
 
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"The actual device hasn’t been fabricated yet, only simulated. The next step, presumably, would be demonstrating that the device works in practice as well as it does on paper."

in other words it's still in the "theory" phase which means well, nothing really as far as end users are concerned. But it is an interesting concept :barefoot:
Hypothesis phase. Theories are proven.
 
Hypothesis phase. Theories are proven.

Theory:
noun
  1. a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, especially one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained.
supposition
/ˌsəpəˈziSH(ə)n/

noun
  1. an uncertain belief
 
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