A group of scientists from the laboratory of topological quantum phenomena in superconducting systems MIPT and MSU offered a fundamentally new type of memory cell based on superconductors. The development is suitable for use in quantum computers, as well as in classical computing systems. Two years ago, by the way, the research organization IAPRA started to create a prototype superconducting computer. Also, the memory on the base of superconductivity is already in use in quantum computers D-wave.
Memory based on superconductivity based on the effect of the tunnel junction in a sandwich of layers of superconductor - insulator (or other material) - the superconductor. Quantum effects in a sandwich back in the 60s predicted the British physicist Brian Josephson. Actually, the transitions were called "Josephson junctions". The electrons in these sandwiches can tunnel from one superconducting layer to another, passing through the insulator as the balls pass through the perforated wall.
Today, as the most promising material in Josephson junctions are considered ferromagnets. Condition zero or one determined by the vector of ferromagnetic magnetization layer between superconductors. In this cell there are two problems - it is a relatively slow change to the opposite state (reversal) and a low recording density, which is caused by the necessity of a special harness. Development of Russian scientists could potentially hundreds of times speed up the time of rewriting the cell and does not require changes in computing architectures.
A team led by Alexander Golubov has proposed and tested method of recording and storing the state of current cell rather than the magnetization. Condition zero or one determined by the amount of current passing through the sandwich with superconducting contacts. If the flow through the cell currents are small, one condition is recorded, if more - then another. The trick here is that the transition from one state to another is done by filing injecting the current small size and it happens hundreds of times faster than would be required to change the magnetization of the ferromagnetic layer. Related Products :
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