A virus boosting a computer’s speed? How does that work? This interesting breakthrough is coming from the experts at MIT and the Singapore SUTD who have found a new way to construct computer memory.
While you first idea might be that the scientists made a computer virus that they use to hack into the operating system and suddenly the computer just boosts its speed of nowhere. You may be surprised but that is not what is going on here. Angela Belcher and he coworkers from MIT did use a virus. But not a sophisticated computer virus. Nor an AI virus. They used a real biological virus – a bacteriophage known as M13. They used the phage to create a new and better computer memory.
Everyone wants their computer to be as fast as possible. And when we aren’t talking about creating a completely new type of computer such as a quantum computer then the easiest way to increase the speed of computers can easily lay in breaking through tiny time limit that usually accompanies exchange of information between the RAM and the computers hard drive. Most of you will know, RAM is quite fast but it requires a constant source of energy and when that goes away it forgets the data. And the hard drive is pretty much the opposite – slow but keeps the data even when you shut down the computer. And their communication is what often keeps the computer slow.
One of the ways to reduce that lag could be a memory called PCRAM (Phase-change RAM). These can potentially be as quick as traditional RAM but are capable of storing data even without energy and potentially store even more data than hard drives. The PCRAM memory use materials that can switch between an amorphous and crystalline state. But so far using them proved to be quite problematic.
We can use binary materials to created PCRAM – for example, Gallium antimonide. But such a memory can easily use much more energy and in higher temperatures – around 350°C – the materials can separate. This fact makes it hard to include binary materials into the process of making electronics as they are typically exposed to temperatures of of around 400°C. The scientists overcame this by using nanowires but even those come with their own problems as those are made at 450°C. Now you may be asking how did that help as that is even higher of a temperature. But they used the M13 bacteriophage. The M13 phage created the nanowires from a tin and germanium oxide at a low temperature. This then allows them to create the PCRAM memory.
This may be a key breakthrough. Now the way is opened for a completely new type of memory that may allow computer components manufactures to eliminate the lag between RAM and hard drives.
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