MIT scientists collaborating with the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) have developed a method to accelerate computer speed. They used a virus to engineer a better type of memory genetically.
Faster computers can be achieved by reducing the millisecond time delays that usually occur when information is transferred and stored between a traditional random access memory (RAM) chip. This means that ppower is required o restore the data. Hard drives, on the other hand, are relatively slow.
Here, phase memory plays a vital role. Phase-change memory can be as fast as a RAM chip and contain even more storage capacity than a hard drive. This memory technology uses a material that reversibly switches between amorphous and crystalline states. However, up until this study, its use faced considerable constraints.
A binary-type material, such as gallium antimonide, could be used to make a better version of phase-change memory. Still, its use can increase power consumption, and it can undergo material separation at around 620 kelvins (K). Hence, it is difficult to incorporate a binary-type material into current integrated circuits because it can separate at typical manufacturing temperatures at about 670 K.
Thus, for the first time, scientists used the M13 bacteriophage—more commonly known as a virus—a low-temperature construction of tiny germanium-tin-oxide wires and memory can be achieved.
Assistant Prof Desmond Loke from SUTD said, “Our research team has found a way to overcome this major roadblock using tiny wire technology.”
“This possibility leads to eliminating the millisecond storage and transfer delays needed to progress modern computing. It might now be that the lightning-quick supercomputers of tomorrow are closer than ever before.”
Journal Reference
- Desmond K. Loke, Griffin J. Clausen, Jacqueline F. Ohmura, Tow-Chong Chong, Angela M. Belcher. Biological-Templating of a Segregating Binary Alloy for Nanowire-Like Phase-Change Materials and Memory. ACS Appl. Nano Mater. 2018, 1, 12, 6556–6562. DOI: 10.1021/acsanm.8b01508
