Houston (TX) - A research team at Rice University led by James Tour with Yubao Li and Alexander Sinitskii have discovered that memory cells created by graphene (thin sheets of graphite) can be 5x as dense while requiring significantly less power to operate. In addition, the lab has already experimented with up to 20K cycles and there was "no discernable degradation."


The memory itself has been created with individual bit cells of less than 10nm, compared to 45nm in today's flash memory chips. The bits are also controlled by only two terminals instead of three - as is used today. This not only allows for less complex designs, but researchers also claim it could be stackable in three dimensions.

The memory also operates over a wide range of temperatures. The team has tested it from -75 degrees Celsius to over 200 degrees Celsius with no discernable effects in performance or storage. This would allow graphene-based memory solutions to work directly alongside hot environments, such as on the CPU core itself.

And perhaps the biggest benefit of all, the researchers have discovered that this form of memory is impervious to radiation, making it suitable for use in extreme environments like spacecraft and nuclear devices.

Read more at Rice University.

Holy Schwartz!

Nov 21, 2008 19:50     

Someone give these people whatever money and resources they need to get this shit market ready within a year.
SantaBJ report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +12

About time

Nov 21, 2008 21:21     

"Graphene is a form of carbon." Great, now all that CO2 that people are complaining about can be put to some good use. Technology is better for the environment, despite what "many" say.
Spudster report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +5

How long?

Nov 22, 2008 13:54     

How long before it becomes economical to deploy? Whatever the researchers say, double that, and then don't be surprised if it takes even longer to actually appear in a product. Maybe I'm just a cynic, but I'm sick of people promising huge gains in some new memory technology, and then not seeing anything at all. Where is our magnetoresistive ram, which - back in 2001 - was promised to be commercially available by 2005?

Andrew report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Consume less energy, 4,5 times dense than current f...

Nov 22, 2008 15:53     

Consume less energy, 4,5 times dense than current flash, extremely durable, no exotic material...SantaBJ is right, we need this thing the fast we can.
Vitor report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

OMG

Nov 22, 2008 16:05     

Can't wait to see it in production. When can we have a CPU like this?
Doug_d report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

I agree - these guys need more funding!

Nov 23, 2008 00:55     

I'm sure the military, NASA and others will love this stuff! no radiation hardening needed, low power, significantly more robust with respect to weardown than flash, etc... WOW
Loosely_coupled report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

why do I feel it is a better material for other industry

Nov 23, 2008 02:03     

Seems like it will contribute more towards other industry like nanotechnology, since its structure is similar to Carbon nanotube.
somebody report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Skeptics

Nov 23, 2008 10:50     

I'm with the skeptics on this one. How many times have we seen announcements about groundbreaking new technology that's "on the verge" - and that's where it stays. Let's not jump for joy until there's an actual commercial product launched and it takes the world by storm.
Head screwed on report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

Microsoft will find a way to consume it all.

Nov 23, 2008 23:56     

M$ will simply release a service pack with new "features" to consume the entire amount of any installed memory.
Greedy GUI report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -7

more for less?

Nov 24, 2008 08:29     

More for less sounds like a winning combination. I hope it does not take long before becoming commercially available. It sounds like the memory of the future and I hope it comes today.
TomLeeM/BigWarpGuy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Re: Skeptics

Nov 25, 2008 10:25     

I agree. We have seen N successors to Flash, even here on TG. But I'm still searching the article for "the catch" on this one.. It's got to be somewhere...
nke report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0