research worker say they have developed a method to store data permanently in a memory board buffalo chip using light . The breakthrough , published in the journalNature Photonics , could lead to significantly firm computing machine in the future .
To store datum , it is crucial a equipment must be able to make for when office is both on and off – think of a atomic number 48 , DVD or tough drive . But computers are limited in their speedby the infection of electric information between a CPU and the store lay in in these devices – called thevon Neumann bottleneck . This means that faster central processing unit do n’t necessarily think better computing top executive , when it is the transmission speed of the data that is the limit factor .
Using light , or photons , to transfer datum could therefore let for much slap-up speeds . But until now , scientists had shinny to find a style to create a light - found gadget that can stash away datum for a significant full point of time .
“ There ’s no point using loyal processor if the limiting divisor is the shuttling of information to - and - from the storage , ” said University of Oxford ’s Professor Harish Bhaskaran , who led the enquiry , in astatement . “ But we think using light source can significantly speed up this up . ”
In this research , which also include the University of Münster , the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the University of Exeter , the squad created the world ’s first all - photonic non - volatile storage chip . It uses a material called Ge2Sb2Te5 ( GST ) , which is also used in rewritable candela and DVDs , to store datum .
Pulses of illumination can deepen the material ’s nation from an ordered to a random land , or crystalline to amorphous . This change can be used to put in entropy , in the form of 1s and 0s , for decades . And using a proficiency known as multiplexing – which involves sending and channelize different wavelengths of light down a silicon nitrate wave guide – a single pulse can pen and take data at the same time , offer “ near unlimited bandwidth , ” Professor Wolfram Pernice of the University of Münster said in thestatement .
“ This is a completely new sort of functionality using proven live materials , ” added Professor Bhaskaran . “ These optic bits can be written with relative frequency of up to one gigahertz and could provide huge bandwidth . This is the kind of radical - immobile data point storage that modern computation needs . ”
The team will now wreak to grow the technology , including find means to perform more tasks using light instead of electrical signals .
