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Discovery of a 'holy grail' with the invention of universal computer memory
[An] electronic memory device -- described in research published in Scientific Reports -- promises to transform daily life with its ultra-low energy consumption. [...] The device is the realisation 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 $100bn market for Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), which is the 'working memory' of computers, as well as the long-term memory in flash drives.
[...] 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."
Room-temperature Operation of Low-voltage, Non-volatile, Compound-semiconductor Memory Cells (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-45370-1) (DX)
(Score: 2) by Snow on Thursday June 20 2019, @09:29PM (7 children)
I can just throw in a few TB of HDD-RAM and I'm good to go? What would a reboot do?
With this alien tech, can Windows update run in less than an hour?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday June 20 2019, @09:40PM (1 child)
That's the idea. A universal memory would replace DRAM, NAND/HDD, and maybe SRAM. It would be as fast or faster than DRAM, with the density/capacity of NAND. Booting could be nearly instantaneous, unless you run Windows 11.
If you remember HP's "The Machine" from a few years back, that was a hyped concept that would have used memristors as universal memory. That never materialized.
HP starts a memristor-based space program to launch ... THE MACHINE [theregister.co.uk]
RIP HPE's The Machine product, 2014-2016: We hardly knew ye [theregister.co.uk]
Stop trying to make The Machine happen, HPE. It's not going to happen [theregister.co.uk]
This would also be a great replacement for DRAM in the DARPA 3D SoC concept [darpa.mil]. More info on that expected in the next year or two.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Touché) by istartedi on Thursday June 20 2019, @10:27PM
The PC would finally catch up to the C-64.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @09:49PM
No. [superuser.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 21 2019, @01:08AM
When we worked on OS code for this type of memory/storage hybrid (though much slower) a few years back we used a "run in place" approach. Once installed the code ran in place and used dynamic RAM allocation for data. No more moving executable code into memory which made loading applications almost instant.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday June 21 2019, @03:03AM
No, Windows anything will always expand to take up all available resources and your time.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Friday June 21 2019, @07:21AM (1 child)
"What would a reboot do?"
Same as a reboot now - zero the appropriate working memory but not the long term storage so that first-time initialisations occur and no assumptions are made about the state of the machine.
You'd likely end up with a memory split (maybe a moving one) between working RAM and long-term storage, still. But you'd likely be able to "DMA" the file on disk directly rather than having to copy it into working RAM and work on it there. Maybe even copy-on-write so unless you modify it, it just pulls it straight from it's long-term storage position and works on it direct.
You'd still *need* a reboot. Software isn't perfect and sometimes you need to reset. But it'll save a whole lot of hassle.
Upgrading would be interesting though - you'd be able to get more RAM and storage simultaneously, and even do things like "RAID" your RAM if your process is very critical. ECC with knobs on, which may not be a bad idea for a new technology.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday June 21 2019, @11:05PM
Maybe the appropriate comparison should be between software and hardware, not between software and cars.