Researchers at Lancaster University in the UK have successfully created a type of non-volatile flash memory that uses only 1% of the power consumption compared to NAND flash or DRAM when storing data.
This memory is called UK III-V Memory and is developed based on a 20nm process. Currently, it is still in the development stage at the scale of a single transistor, so more time is needed to develop it into a complete commercial product. However, this achievement shows the potential of a type of non-volatile memory that could outperform and compete with current DRAM performance.
Moreover, the emergence of non-volatile memory with speeds comparable to DRAM is quite interesting because it has the potential to replace RAM in our computers. RAM has fast access speeds, but on the other hand, it is volatile memory, meaning data is lost when power is cut. With UK III-V Memory, we have fast access speeds without the risk of data loss during power outages, which is simply fantastic. Not to mention, it saves more power than RAM as well.
However, one question needs to be answered: Can UK III-V Memory withstand continuous write cycles like DRAM? If yes, that would be great; if not, we can look at the positive side that we might have hard drives with speeds as fast as computer RAM.
Source: tom’s HARDWARE, Gearvn