University of Tokyo research group discovers "alternating magnetic material" that improves memory performance

Recently NHK News on-line reported the following:

メモリーの性能高める「交代磁性体」発見 東大の研究グループ

2024年12月13日 22時24分

コンピューターのメモリーの性能を飛躍的に高める「交代磁性体」と呼ばれる特殊な性質を持った物質を見つけたと、東京大学の研究グループが発表しました。コンピューターの消費電力の低下にもつながる成果だとしています。

これは、東京大学大学院工学系研究科の関真一郎教授らの研究グループが発表しました。

グループは、磁気の性質を使って情報を記憶させるメモリーの性能を飛躍的に高める「交代磁性体」と呼ばれる特殊な性質を持った物質を探しました。

その結果、化合物の「硫化鉄」がこの特殊な性質を持っていることを突き止め、従来のメモリーと同じように情報を読み込んだり書き出したりできることを実験で確かめたということです。

研究グループによりますと、今回見つかった交代磁性体は室温で使えるのが特徴で、理論的には、従来の磁気を使ったメモリーより小型化が可能で、処理速度が100倍以上速くなるということです。

また、交代磁性体を使ったメモリーは待機時に電力を消費しないため、関教授は「情報処理に必要な消費電力の低減が課題となる中、コンピューターの消費電力を劇的に下げるはずだ」と話しています。

Translation

University of Tokyo research group discovers "alternating magnetic material" that improves memory performance

A research group at the University of Tokyo announced that they had found a material with special properties called "alternating magnetic substance" that dramatically could improve the performance of computer memory. They said that this result could also lead to a reduction in computer power consumption.

This was announced by a research group led by Professor Shinichiro Seki (関真一郎) of the Graduate School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo.

The group searched for a material with special properties called "alternating magnetic substance" that used magnetic nature to store information that could dramatically improve the performance of memory.

As a result, they found that the compound "iron sulfide" had this special property, and confirmed through experiments that it could read and write information in the same way as conventional memory.

According to the research group, the alternating magnetic material discovered this time was characterized by the fact that it could be used at room temperature, and theoretically, it could be made smaller than conventional magnetic memory and its processing speed would be more than 100 times faster.

Also, because the memory using alternating magnetic materials did not consume power when in standby mode, Professor Seki said, "At a time when reducing the power consumption needed for information processing is an issue, this should dramatically reduce the power consumption of computers."

              So, research in Japan has found a material called "alternating magnetic substance" that has a special property that can dramatically improve the performance of computer memory. They say that this will also lead to, among other things, a reduction in computer power consumption. Apparently, we will see a computer memory revolution soon.