"Ultra-low–power spintronic devices such as this one have potential implications beyond the memory industry," Wang said. They can enable new instant-on electronic systems, where memory is integrated with logic and computing, thereby completely eliminating standby power and greatly enhancing their functionality."

Will be interesting to see what robot programmers and video game developers can do with that, if and when they ever understand it.

Aside from that, I'm wondering about the timing too. This has been in development for 11 or 12 years now. Heck, I remember talking about this on the old OpenTechSupport site back when it was first mentioned. I think 40GB HD and a few hundred megs of RAM was a big deal back then...

I won't say no to a terabyte of MeRAM in my next computer. Hopefully it will be cheap to produce. Although I wonder how long it retains its memory before a refresh is required.

Just recently they invented a better way to have light waves directly detectable at the 90 nanometer scale on the chip. So I guess they will use the photovoltaic effect to emit an electron (causing a voltage change) so that the change in voltage to interface to MeRAM, and then somehow have the emitted electron get reabsorbed, once per clock cycle. Then you could have a computer with NO CURRENT FLOW ? Nothing but changing energy levels in the computer. That would be somehow zero energy consumption, other than the energy required to load the registers at the beginning of a clock cycle, and the energy to detect the registers at the end of a clock cycle. But I'm a computer programmer who knows nothing about electronics! So I mayt be wrong.

. Although I wonder how long it retains its memory before a refresh is required.

As noted in teh article: it's non-volatile (i.e. it will retain memory indefinitely). Which is good from a power perspective, but very bad from a security perspective.

That would be somehow zero energy consumption,

No, because you're still inducing phonons and radiating light. The power consumption is much lower, but you won't ever get a zero power computer.

@antialias, what I was thinking was emitting and reabsorbing photons, but I accidentally said 'electron'. So you're right, it didn't make sense. My main "thinking" at the time was that this is cool because voltage requires no actual flow of electrons. :( I shouldn't comment when I'm half asleep! lol.

The old magnetic core memory used current and retained the data when power was removed and then this was abandoned for other higher density methods and now we go back to improved magnetic memory decades later. Who would have guessed?
And by the way when you change the potential voltage on anything there is indeed an unavoidable flow of current until the voltage is stable. (capacitive reactance)

@unknownorigin, your last sentence is true only in a closed circuit where current can flow. It is possible to have a voltage potential between two objects that have never even touched each other before. Only once the two objects with relative potential make contact will you see any current flow. If the new type of circuit can sense voltage differences, then it is possible for that sensing to happen with no current flow at all (theoretically). Just think of a resistor with almost total (infinite resistance), as an example. If this circuit is constantly sensing voltage differentials for sending digital 0s and 1s for example that could mean that the 1 is flowing one way and the 0 is flowing the other way, and you would see a net flow of zero electrons over even short periods of time, yet information would be getting transmitted. Kinda reminds me of AC versus DC in a way, but that's different I know. DC has a constant flow, but AC uses less current because of a similar push/pull.

BTW, no flow of electrons has to be happening as the negative side of a capacitor collects a surplus of electrons (or charge), while the other has a net positive charge (lack of electrons). I'm sure you know how capacitors work. The key thing, related to the article, is how much current MUST flow for their Voltage sensing gate to do its switching.