Researchers have developed a new design for computer memory that could both greatly improve performance and reduce the energy demands of internet and communications technologies, which are predicted to consume nearly a third of global electricity within the next ten years.
The researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, developed a device that processes data in a similar way as the synapses in the human brain. The devices are based on hafnium oxide, a material already used in the semiconductor industry, and tiny self-assembled barriers, which can be raised or lowered to allow electrons to pass.
This method of changing the electrical resistance in computer memory devices, and allowing information processing and memory to exist in the same place, could lead to the development of computer memory devices with far greater density, higher performance and lower energy consumption. The results are reported in the journal Science Advances.
Our data-hungry world has led to a ballooning of energy demands, making it ever-more difficult to reduce carbon emissions. Within the next few years, artificial intelligence, internet usage, algorithms and other data-driven technologies are expected to consume more than 30% of global electricity.
"To a large extent, this explosion in energy demands is due to shortcomings of current computer memory technologies," said first author Dr Markus Hellenbrand, from Cambridge's Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy. "In conventional computing, there's memory on one side and processing on the other, and data is shuffled back between the two, which takes both energy and time."
One potential solution to the problem of inefficient computer memory is a new type of technology known as resistive switching memory. Conventional memory devices are capable of two states: one or zero. A functioning resistive switching memory device however, would be capable of a continuous range of states – computer memory devices based on this principle would be capable of far greater density and speed.
