Quinas Technology Ltd. - Commercialising ULTRARAM computer memory

数字电子产品支撑着移动计算、个人计算和云计算。它由数字逻辑和内存组成，处理器中的复杂程度令人震惊。内存的市场规模更大(1670亿美元)，完全由动态随机存取存储器(DRAM)和闪存主导(96%)。DRAM是计算中的主内存或工作内存。它的数据可以非常快地改变，几乎无限次(高耐力)，但它是不稳定的，这意味着没有电力，信息就会丢失。事实上，即使在供电的DRAM必须不断刷新的情况下，“动态”也是健忘的委婉说法！Flash具有完全相反的特征。它是非易失性的，可以将数据存储在固态驱动器或可以随身携带的U盘中。然而，闪存强大的数据存储能力使写入和擦除变得更加困难；闪存速度较慢且很容易磨损(耐用性较低)。DRAM和闪存在内存中的角色最大限度地发挥了它们的优势，而它们的缺点则被对用户隐藏的后台进程所缓解。理想的“通用”存储器将结合DRAM和闪存的所有优点，而不会有任何缺点。由于这种存储器必须具备的相互矛盾的特性，即具有健壮的存储容易改变的数据，所以人们普遍认为它是不可能实现的。ULTRARAM是兰开斯特大学开发的一种非凡的、获得专利的存储器技术，它成功地结合了通用存储器的特性。利用一种称为共振隧道的量子力学过程，ULTRARAM可以提供非易失性、快速和节能的写入和擦除，从而实现高耐用性。ULTRARAM具有闪存的非易失性，性能有望超过DRAM。在这个项目中，最近从兰开斯特大学剥离出来的Quinas Technology，其首席执行官是一位在半导体行业拥有30多年经验的企业家，将为ULTRARAM的工业开发奠定技术和商业基础。我们将通过摩尔定律对单个设备(单个内存位)进行收缩来推进技术，使用高度专业的设备测试它们的特性，使用世界领先的建模专业知识改进它们的特性，并预测多位阵列的性能。该项目的技术和商业工作将促进大量种子投资，推出Quinas作为一家商业企业，将颠覆和改变存储器行业，为英国带来可观的经济效益，并通过能效计算帮助实现净零碳排放。

Digital electronics underpins mobile, personal and cloud computing. It comprises digital logic, built up to astonishing levels of complexity in processors, and memory. Memory is the larger in market size ($167bn) and is utterly dominated (96%) by dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and flash. DRAM is the main or working memory in computing. Its data can be changed very quickly, and an almost unlimited number of times (high endurance), but it is volatile, meaning that without power information is lost. Indeed, even when powered DRAM must be continually refreshed; 'dynamic' is a euphemism for forgetful! Flash has completely opposite characteristics. It is non-volatile, storing data in a solid-state drive or a USB stick you can carry around. However, flash's robust storage of data makes it more difficult to write and erase; it is slow and easily wears out (low endurance). DRAM and flash's roles in memory make the most of their advantages, whilst their disadvantages are mitigated by background processes hidden from the user. An ideal, 'universal' memory would combine all the advantages of DRAM and flash, without any of their disadvantages. Due to the contradictory properties that such a memory must possess, i.e., have robustly stored data that can easily be changed, it was widely thought to be unachievable.ULTRARAM is a remarkable, patented, memory technology developed by Lancaster University that successfully combines the attributes of universal memory. Exploitation of a quantum-mechanical process called resonant tunnelling allows ULTRARAM to deliver non-volatility with fast and energy-efficient write and erase, resulting in high endurance. ULTRARAM has the non-volatility of flash, with a performance that is expected to exceed that of DRAM. In this project, Quinas Technology, a recently formed spinout from Lancaster University, with a CEO that is an entrepreneur with over 30 years' experience in the semiconductor industry, will lay the technical and commercial foundations for industrial exploitation of ULTRARAM. We will advance the technology by Moore's-law-style shrinking of individual devices (single memory bits), test their characteristics using highly-specialist equipment, refine their properties using world-leading modelling expertise, and predict the performance of multibit arrays. The technical and commercial work in the project will facilitate significant seed investment that will launch Quinas as a commercial enterprise that will disrupt and transform the memory industry, reaping substantial economic benefit for the UK and helping to achieve net-zero carbon emissions through energy efficient computing.