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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Historically, one of the larger bottlenecks to computing performance hasn't been processor speed; it has been getting data and instructions to and from the processor. Working with memory isn't only a performance bottleneck, as the multiple layers of caches and high-speed memory add significantly to a computer's power budget. Other systems, like the extremely power-efficient neuron, mix processing and memory in individual cells.

That has inspired some computer scientists to try to figure out if we could do the same. Resistance-based memory, like memristors and phase-change memory, operate based on physics that make them amenable to performing calculations, and a few proof-of-concept demonstrations have been done using them. But a team from IBM Zurich has now gone beyond proof of concept, and it has used an array of a million phase change memory bits as an analog computer, performing tests for temporal correlations on real-world weather data.

[...] The authors note that a variety of other calculations, like factorization and matrix manipulations, can be performed using phase change memory arrays, meaning this isn't a one-trick pony. The primary limitation, in the end, may be with developing a sufficient market for phase change as memory. If it ends up being mass produced, then adapting it for calculations would probably be relatively simple. But phase change memory has been on the periphery of the market for nearly a decade now, and there's no clear indication that it will be taking off. Until that changes, using it for analog computing will be a niche within a niche.

Source: Ars Technica

Nature Communications, 2017. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01481-9

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