I Don’t Believe in Imaginary Property brings us an essay describing the possibility of a new type of non-volatile storage based on quantum dot technology. So far, researchers in Germany have achieved 10ns access times and 0.7Hz refresh rates. Their calculations predict that the access duration could be maintained for up to a million years. We have discussed other technologies based on quantum dots, such as solar panels and knowledge teleportation. From the Ars Technica spread: “Quantum dots can do that considering there

is more design freedom in setting them up. Normal flash memory relies on the huge potential barrier created by a silicon oxide layer. However, to get electrons across that barrier when writing details to a flash cell requires a lot of energy, energy that destroys the silicon oxide layer. Quantum dots, in contrast, have tunable properties, so the barrier can be kept low.”

Read more of that story at Slashdot.

Orginal post by Soulskill