In a groundbreaking achievement, Chinese scientists have unveiled the fastest flash memory ever created, capable of erasing and rewriting data in just 400 picoseconds—one trillionth of a second. Developed by researchers at Fudan University, this revolutionary memory device, called “Poxiao” or Dawn, is poised to redefine the speed of data storage and significantly enhance the performance of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. This breakthrough shatters current speed barriers by an incredible 100,000 times.
Traditional memory systems, such as volatile memories like SRAM and DRAM, provide high-speed access but come with limitations in capacity, power consumption, and vulnerability to power loss. Non-volatile memory like flash storage, on the other hand, offers larger storage and data persistence but has struggled with slower speeds.
The breakthrough achieved by the Fudan University team lies in their new approach to accelerating flash memory. Previously, the method involved pre-accelerating electrons before they entered and exited the memory cells, but this process was slow and limited by theoretical speed ceilings. Instead, the researchers introduced a novel technique called “2D-enhanced hot-carrier injection,” allowing electrons to transition directly from a low-speed to a high-speed state, bypassing the need for a “warm-up” phase.
This innovation has led to the creation of a prototype that erases and rewrites data at an unprecedented speed of 400 picoseconds, far surpassing the speed of traditional flash memory and even volatile memory like SRAM. While the current prototype only holds kilobytes of data, its design could revolutionize the future of computing and AI. The researchers believe that once scaled up, this technology will completely disrupt the existing storage architecture, enabling computers to eliminate the distinction between memory and external storage.
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