NSF Award
8961091
A new memory cell using magnetic films and High Critical Temperature Superconductors (HCTS) is examined for application in supercomputer mass memories. Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM) technology has densities projected in excess of 108 bits/cm2, but at these high densities read-access times are limited to about 10 microseconds. With the proposed memory cell, signal-to-noise ratios are improved by a factor of about 30, which would decrease access times to about 10 nanoseconds. It may also offer a significant cost reduction in random access memory systems. Supercomputer performance is increasingly dominated by performance of the memory hierarchy, particularly access time of disc memory. Installing and maintaining a liquid nitrogen cooling system may be an acceptable cost for improved supercomputer performance utilizing the subject memory scheme. If feasible, this concept may substantially advance supercomputing technology, and as nitrogen cooling becomes less expensive, it could have widespread use in both mainframe computers and work stations.
