Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by takyon on Saturday December 15 2018, @10:30PM   Printer-friendly
from the universal-memory dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Data use draining your battery? Tiny device to speed up memory while also saving power

Millions of new memory cells could be part of a computer chip and [provide] speed and energy savings, thanks to the discovery of a previously unobserved functionality in a material called molybdenum ditelluride. The two-dimensional material stacks into multiple layers to build a memory cell.

Chip-maker companies have long called for better memory technologies to enable a growing network of smart devices. One of these next-generation possibilities is resistive random access memory, or RRAM for short. [...] A material would need to be robust enough for storing and retrieving data at least trillions of times, but materials currently used have been too unreliable. So RRAM hasn't been available yet for widescale use on computer chips. Molybdenum ditelluride could potentially last through all those cycles.

"We haven't yet explored system fatigue using this new material, but our hope is that it is both faster and more reliable than other approaches due to the unique switching mechanism we've observed," Joerg Appenzeller, Purdue University's Barry M. and Patricia L. Epstein Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the scientific director of nanoelectronics at the Birck Nanotechnology Center.

Electric-field induced structural transition in vertical MoTe2- and Mo1–xWxTe2-based resistive memories (DOI: 10.1038/s41563-018-0234-y) (DX)


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 15 2018, @10:46PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 15 2018, @10:46PM (#774954)

    We haven't yet explored system fatigue using this new material

    Our results are meaningless, we never did the research, send in the science groupies and psychoactive drugs...

    Yet another attention-whoring science fraud, as always.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 16 2018, @12:37AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 16 2018, @12:37AM (#774984)

      It's true that they haven't stress tested it ... or used it with any logic gates (or any other parts of a real CPU), nor have they actually used it to store or retrieve data. But they have applied for two patents, so it's not a total waste of time.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 16 2018, @12:41AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 16 2018, @12:41AM (#774987)
    Imagine guaranteed obsolescence! A new device works for exactly N years and then fails.
    • (Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Sunday December 16 2018, @12:50AM (1 child)

      by RandomFactor (3682) on Sunday December 16 2018, @12:50AM (#774991) Journal

      Wait..what?

      Where did you get that from TFA?

      --
      В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 16 2018, @12:52AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 16 2018, @12:52AM (#774992)

        Who knows. Maybe he's referring to the earlier attempts at RRAM where the materials cannot withstand the trillions of access operations? Or maybe he read an article on SSDs?

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Sunday December 16 2018, @01:44AM (1 child)

      by takyon (881) <{takyon} {at} {soylentnews.org}> on Sunday December 16 2018, @01:44AM (#775006) Journal

      If they achieve the longevity they are looking for, it should last much longer than SSDs.

      The potential benefits of the universal memory approach are immense. And if you have some problem with it being glued to the CPU cores, you could use RRAM or whatever technology it ends up being separately in DIMM slots, drive bays, add-on cards, etc. Like Intel's 3D XPoint but not garbage.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 16 2018, @03:56AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 16 2018, @03:56AM (#775038)

        "If they achieve the longevity they are looking for, it should last much longer than SSDs."
        Well yeah, that's the desired outcome.
        And now, back to the ugly, hard reality of proving that their technology will do what they hope.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 17 2018, @12:15AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 17 2018, @12:15AM (#775235)

    Wait for it!

    https://youtu.be/wVH6zy9q4n8 [youtu.be]

(1)