Chinese scientists have cracked the code to memory speeds once deemed impossible – with a device smaller than a grain of rice. Researchers at Fudan University presented the “Poxiao”, or Dawn, the fastest flash memory ever created, which can erase and rewrite data in 400 picoseconds. One picosecond is one trillionth of a second. While the existing prototype holds only kilobytes, its revolutionary design shatters the speed barriers of modern storage by 100,000 times, promising a future where AI brains can read and write as fast as they think. Published in the journal Nature, this leap in electron physics may soon blur the line between memory and computing. Overcoming the limits of information storage speed has long been one of the most fundamental challenges in the integrated circuit field, and it is also a key technical bottleneck restricting the potential of AI computing power.
Existing storage architectures come with limitations. While volatile memory – like SRAM and DRAM – offers high speeds, it suffers from low capacity, high power consumption, high manufacturing costs, and data loss when power is cut. Non-volatile memory – like flash storage – offers larger capacity, lower power consumption, and data persistence, but lags far behind in speed. The research team aimed to accelerate flash memory – harnessing its advantages while addressing its speed limitations. The basic storage unit of flash memory is a floating-gate transistor, in which electrons move in and out of a charge storage space under the influence of voltage, enabling data recording. “In the past, the approach to speeding up flash memory involved pre-accelerating the electrons, allowing them to gain energy before entering and exiting,” project leader Liu Chunsen said in a statement from Fudan University. But under traditional theoretical models, this “warm-up” process is slow, and there is a speed ceiling, preventing flash memory from exceeding theoretical speed limits. “It’s been 60 years since Bell Labs introduced the floating-gate transistor. If we had just stuck with traditional theories or relied on material changes, we wouldn’t have made any major breakthroughs. That is why we have focused on developing a completely new approach to flash memory,” Liu said.
The researchers found a way to allow electrons to directly transition from a low-speed to a high-speed state without the need for a “warm-up” phase. This new theory – called “2D-enhanced hot-carrier injection” – led to the development of the prototype. In tests, the erase-write speed reached 400 picoseconds, surpassing the world’s fastest volatile memory, SRAM, at the same technology node. The “Poxiao” flash memory device is now moving towards production. Combined with CMOS technology, the chip has already been successfully fabricated at the kilobyte level. Within five years, the team hopes to scale it to tens of megabytes and have it licensed and ready to market, the South China Morning Post reports.
