IIT Roorkee now develops highspeed memory device
SUPER COMPUTING The applications of this chip can be found across domains such as signal processing, artificial intelligence, machine learning and virtual reality, among others
A team at IIT Roorkee has developed an evolved memory device which can read and write memory at a high speed while consuming low energy. The researchers at the department of physics and the Centre for Nanotechnology at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee have developed a magnetic chip after working on this device for five years while research on the uses of different metallic alloys has been continuing for over a decade.
“This is an energy-efficient, four-logic state memory device known as Magnetoelectric Random Access Memory (MeRAM) and has been fabricated at the Functional Nanomaterials Research Laboratory at IIT using the Magnetron Sputtering technique,” says Davinder Kaur Walia, professor, department of physics and the Centre for Nanotechnology, IIT Roorkee and principal investigator of the project.
Currently, all memory devices are two-bit which means they read information using the digital binary of 0 and 1.
However, four-logic states allows a faster reading and writing of memory. Four-logic states also utilize electric and magnetic field at the same time.
The development of such a
NEWDELHI: reseArChers hAVe AChieVeD The FourLogiC sTATe BuT hAVe Been unABLe To ConTroL iT
chip suggests a new leap of technology as currently the key limitation of memory-related technology was the two-bit ability.
“Globally, researchers have achieved the four-logic state but have been unable to distinguish and control them which is what we have been able to achieve,” says Walia. “To achieve this, a new material called Ferromagnetic Shape Memory Alloys was used (FSMA) and the concept of composite barrier were chosen, which helped in achieving the goal of distinguishable memory logic states.” The current ultimate memory cell has shown a tremendous improvement of nearly 140 % in the memory function, she added.
The applications of this chip can be found across domains such as signal processing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and virtual reality among others.
It can impact the speed at which memory-intensive tasks such as video viewing or playing mobile games are undertaken.
Apart from the fact that the device consumes low energy, the key advantage of this device over existing technology is its nonvolatility which means it is capable of retaining data even when power is off. Additionally, the chip utilizes voltage instead of large electric current to switch the magnetic bits and write data into the memory which not only makes the process faster but also reduces the cost per bit.
Currently, the institution is looking for industrial partners who can manufacture the product for application.