Researchers Develop the First Non-volatile All-optical Chip Memory Based on Phase Change Materials
The first all-optical permanent on-chip memory has been developed by scientists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the universities of Münster, Oxford, and Exeter. This is an important step on the way towards optical computers. Phase change materials that change their optical properties depending on the arrangement of the atoms allow for the storage of several bits in a single cell. The researchers present their development in the journal Nature Photonics (10.1038/nphoton.2015.182).
Light determines the future of information and communication technology: With optical elements, computers can work more rapidly and more efficiently. Optical fibers have long since been used for the transmission of data with light. But on a computer, data are still processed and stored electronically. Electronic exchange of data between processors and the memory limits the speed of modern computers. To overcome this so-called von Neumann bottleneck, it is not sufficient to optically connect memory and processor, as the optical signals have to be converted into electric signals again. Scientists, hence, look for methods to carry out calculations and data storage in a purely optical manner.
Scientists of KIT, the University of Münster, Oxford University, and Exeter University have now developed the first all-optical, non-volatile on-chip memory. “Optical bits can be written at frequencies of up to a gigahertz. This allows for extremely quick data storage by our all-photonic memory,” Professor Wolfram Pernice explains. Pernice headed a working group of the KIT Institute of Nanotechnology (INT) and recently moved to the University of Münster.
“The memory is compatible not only with conventional optical fiber data transmission, but also with latest processors,” Professor Harish Bhaskaran of Oxford University adds.
The new memory can store data for decades even when the power is removed. Its capacity to store many bits in a single cell of a billionth of a meter in size (multi-level memory) also is highly attractive. Instead of the usual information values of 0 and 1, several states can be stored in an element and even autonomous calculations can be made. This is due to so-called phase change materials, novel materials that change their optical properties depending on the arrangement of the atoms: Within shortest periods of time, they can change between crystalline (regular) and amorphous (irregular) states. For the memory, the scientists used the phase change material Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST). The change from crystalline to amorphous (storing data) and from amorphous to crystalline (erasing data) is initiated by ultrashort light pulses. For reading out the data, weak light pulses are used.
Permanent all-optical on-chip memories might considerably increase future performance of computers and reduce their energy consumption. Together with all-optical connections, they might reduce latencies. Energy-intensive conversion of optical signals into electronic signals and vice versa would no longer be required.
Read more: Permanent Data Storage with Light
The Latest on: All-optical Chip Memory
[google_news title=”” keyword=”All-optical Chip Memory” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: All-optical Chip Memory
- Unlocking New Levels of Accuracy With Advanced Timing Chipson April 25, 2024 at 1:39 pm
Compact chips enhance precision timing for communication, navigation, and various applications. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and its collaborators have delivered a small b ...
- AI Efficiency Breakthrough: How Sound Waves Are Revolutionizing Optical Neural Networkson April 23, 2024 at 12:34 pm
Researchers have developed a way to use sound waves in optical neural networks, enhancing their ability to process data with high speed and energy efficiency. Optical neural networks may provide the ...
- Going all opticalon April 21, 2024 at 5:00 pm
"TPUv4 accelerators are deployed in 'SuperPods' of 4,096 chips, each connected to a dedicated optical switch ... and the network is all optics,” Mizrahi said. This would allow “memory to scale at its ...
- A new generation is uncovering the tiny doodles left by engineers on old microchipson April 16, 2024 at 2:00 am
All painstakingly ... to the chip. One of the big cat's spots is about 4 microns across — far thinner than a sheet of paper. So how did this tiny art make its debut? The late research scientist ...
- A New Photonic Computer Chip Uses Light to Slash AI Energy Costson April 15, 2024 at 1:45 pm
The chip was nearly 92 percent accurate at image recognition, matching current chip performance, but cut energy consumption over a thousand-fold.
- Optical memory of crystalson April 14, 2024 at 5:00 pm
UD’s Tingyi Gu receives NSF CAREER award to study materials that can create more reliable, less energy-intensive forms of computer memory ... lasers and optical fibers. One area of her lab’s focus is ...
- Research Bits: April 8on April 7, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Researchers from the Tokyo University of Science designed a scalable, fully-coupled annealing processor with 4096 spins on a single board with 36 CMOS chips, with parallelized capabilities for ...
- Celestial AI Wants To Break The Memory Wall, Fuse HBM With DDR5on April 3, 2024 at 5:00 pm
It also doesn’t do anything to address the fact that HBM memory, on which all this AI processing depends ... either to add additional HBM memory capacity or as a chip-to-chip interconnect, sort or ...
- Lenovo's new AI ThinkPads may be just the laptops business users have been waiting foron March 20, 2024 at 10:38 am
The Lenovo ThinkPad L-series and ThinkPad X13 feature powerful neural processing units to tackle AI tasks in the workplace.
- Integrating silicon photonicson November 3, 2021 at 1:34 am
This achievement represents a major advancement towards the development of low-cost highly integrated optical ... All of these functions could be performed using a silicon photonic chip.
via Bing News