Experts Invented A New Computer Memory With Minimal Energy Consumption

Researchers at Lancaster University in the UK have found a solution for the high demand for energy of digital technology. The answer comes in the form of new computer memory.

According to Science Daily, we would have a massive wave of data by 2025 as a result of the growth in the number of gadgets and computers. All of these devices would need about a fifth of the global energy to operate.

Here is what researchers do to make the new computer memory:

“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 biggest benefit this Universal Memory can bring is its minimal energy consumption, which has the potential to lower the total amount of energy needed in data centers by about a fifth.

Apart from the low energy requirement, another advantage of this new computer memory is that it can fix the shortcomings of both DRAM (short for Dynamic Random Access Memory) and flash storages.

While DRAM also has low energy consumption, it can only retain data for a short amount of time; so users need to refresh it frequently. Flash storage, on the other hand, requires a large amount of energy when users transfer or delete data, but it has a longer storing time.

The researchers said that the new computer memory is able to delete and transfer data with just one-hundredth of the energy consumption of DRAM. Several companies have shown interest in this project while some others have already been part of it.

Here is what Manus Hayne, a physics professor at Lancaster University, said about the Universal Memory:

“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.”