Chinese scientists at Fudan University have claimed to have developed a new form of memory that they claim is significantly faster than existing Flash memory, with an access time of just 400 picoseconds, compared to thousands of times longer for Flash memory.
The memory is described in a paper in Nature and uses a two-dimensional Dirac graphene-channel Flash memory structure said to be capable of both writing and erasing.
It was demonstrated with a write speed of 400 picoseconds, non-volatile storage and a 5.5 x 106 cycle endurance.
Dirac materials, which include graphene, show unusual electron transport properties and it is these that allow for the greatly increased processing speeds seen in the Chinese scientists’ prototype.
It is thought that the new memory could provide a bridging solution between the speeds of Flash and DRAM memory types.
