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Saving Energy With Computer Memory
July 2, 2019 | Leave a Comment
UK’s Lancaster University scientists have invented and patented a new type of computer memory to solve the digital technology “energy crisis”. The device is the realization of the decades long search for a ‘Universal Memory’ to replace the $100 billion market for Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) and flash drives. It promises to transform daily life with its ultra-low energy consumption, allowing computers which do not need to boot up and which could sleep between key strokes.
Cross-sectional scanning transmission electron microscopy image showing the high quality of the epitaxial material, the individual layers and their heterointerfaces. Image Credit: Lancaster University. A more complete graphic is available at the study paper link above to Scientific Reports. Click this image for the largest view.
The electronic memory device, described in a research paper published in Scientific Reports, promises to transform daily life with its ultra-low energy consumption.
In the home, energy savings from efficient lighting and appliances have been completely wiped out by increased use of computers and electronic devices, and by 2025 a ‘tsunami of data’ is expected to consume a fifth of global electricity.
But this new device would immediately reduce peak power consumption in data centers by a fifth.
It would also allow, for example, computers which do not need to boot up and could instantaneously and imperceptibly go into an energy-saving sleep mode – even between key stokes.
The development is the realization of the search for a “Universal Memory” which has preoccupied scientists and engineers for decades.
Physics Professor Manus Hayne of Lancaster University said: “Universal Memory, which has robustly stored data that is easily changed, is widely considered to be unfeasible, or even impossible, but this device demonstrates its contradictory properties.”
A US patent has been awarded for the electronic memory device with another patent pending, while several companies have expressed an interest or are actively involved in the research.
The inventors of the device used quantum mechanics to solve the dilemma of choosing between stable, long-term data storage and low-energy writing and erasing.
The device could replace the $100 billion market for Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), which is the ‘working memory’ of computers, as well as the long-term memory in flash drives.
While writing data to DRAM is fast and low-energy, the data is volatile and must be continuously ‘refreshed’ to avoid it being lost: this is clearly inconvenient and inefficient. Flash stores data robustly, but writing and erasing is slow, energy intensive and deteriorates it, making it unsuitable for working memory.
Professor Hayne said: “The ideal is to combine the advantages of both without their drawbacks, and this is what we have demonstrated. Our device has an intrinsic data storage time that is predicted to exceed the age of the Universe, yet it can record or delete data using 100 times less energy than DRAM.”
This is a WOW technology. Not just for computers either. There is a long list of “computers” starting with laptops, notebooks, tablets, cellphones, TV’s, DVD and Blueray players, just to start. This writer’s hoped for first application is the cell smart phone that runs with apps sucking down and wearing out the battery every instant.
Lets hope there isn’t a glitch in the progress, as this really is a huge breakthrough.
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