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New Memristor Design Can Hold Up to 128 Memory States Per Switch

posted by Fnord666 on Monday January 29 2018, @10:07AM   Printer-friendly
from the that's-a-lot-of-states dept.

takyon writes:

Scientists develop new technology standard that could shape the future of electronics design

In a study published in the journal Scientific Reports [open, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-17785-1] [DX], researchers show how they have pushed the memristor – a simpler and smaller alternative to the transistor, with the capability of altering its resistance and storing multiple memory states – to a new level of performance after experimenting with its component materials.

[...] The University of Southampton team has demonstrated a new memristor technology that can store up to 128 discernible memory states per switch, almost four times more than previously reported.

In the study, they describe how they reached this level of performance by evaluating several configurations of functional oxide materials – the core component that gives the memristor its ability to alter its resistance.

[...] Professor Prodromakis and his colleagues will be showcasing the technology, and presenting seven original research papers, at ISCAS 2018, an international circuits and systems conference, in Florence, Italy, in May.

"Almost four times more"?

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Monday January 29 2018, @10:45AM (7 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Monday January 29 2018, @10:45AM (#629764) Homepage
    "We are demonstrating memory cells with up to 6.5 bits of information storage" which would be about 90 distinguishable states, which isn't "up to" 128, as it clearly falls short. (Reading on, the actual number's 92.)

    Either way, the 4 times comment is a bit weird as "some recent reports of multibit capable metal-oxide memory cells, most works in literature are limited to no more than 3 bits", which would be 8 states. And 92 is a factor of 11, not 4.

    Never believe press releases. I guess it's all packed there in the meat of the paper, I didn't have time to do anything but skim.
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  • (Score: 2) by WalksOnDirt on Monday January 29 2018, @11:05AM (2 children)

    by WalksOnDirt (5854) on Monday January 29 2018, @11:05AM (#629769) Journal

    Going from three bits to over six bits is more than doubling the performance. Nice, as long as it is just as fast and stable as the three bit version was.

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by FatPhil on Monday January 29 2018, @12:02PM (1 child)

      by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Monday January 29 2018, @12:02PM (#629789) Homepage
      Nominally doubling the per-gate information density, yes, that's impressive. This definitely looks like very interesting technology for the future (I'm reminded of the history of high-temperature superconductors, and how different element ratios were toyed with). But you're right, it needs to be practical, not just theoretical - the paper addresses the issues of reliability and stability: "Even in the worst case the AlxOy/TiO2 devices consistently exhibit at least 4-bit of information with half of the devices surpassing 5-bits and 1/3 the 6-bit mark (Fig. 5b)." In this peri-pre-post-Moore era[*], let's hope it scales, and broadens its fields of use. Sometimes semiconductor tech can take a decade or more to go from lab to industry, though, and sometimes it hits an unsurmountable bump, so let's keep fingers crossed.

      [* meaning "near the time when we're coming up to the era where Moore's Law fails to be predictive", but you knew that, right?]
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      • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 29 2018, @03:21PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 29 2018, @03:21PM (#629832)

        Xkcd's Researcher Translation [xkcd.com]

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 29 2018, @12:23PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 29 2018, @12:23PM (#629794)

    which would be about 90 distinguishable states, which isn't "up to" 128, as it clearly falls short. (Reading on, the actual number's 92.)

    Yeah. Anyway, more state than USofA even if it grants statehood to Puerto Rico.

    • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday January 29 2018, @02:18PM (2 children)

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Monday January 29 2018, @02:18PM (#629806) Journal

      But are the US states all distinguishable? :-)

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 29 2018, @06:49PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 29 2018, @06:49PM (#629945)

        I can never remember which one is Mississippi and which one is backward Mississippi...

      • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday January 30 2018, @08:39AM

        by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Tuesday January 30 2018, @08:39AM (#630247) Homepage
        Let's play a game - let's list them:

        1) The shithole one...

        Your go.
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