Battery operated mobile devices like smartphones and tablets are still lagging behind laptops and desktops in sheer computing power, thanks to their negligible RAM (random access memory).
An Israeli researcher, however, is tweaking their RAM to bring them
on par with their bigger cousins, so that they can run various
programmes just as smoothly and simultaneously, even with a tiny
battery.
Elad Mentovich, doctoral candidate at the Tel Aviv University, is
relying on carbon molecule called C60, to build a sophisticated memory
transistor that can both transfer and store energy, eliminating the need
for a capacitor (energy storage device), the journal Advanced Materials
and Applied Physics Letters reports.
“When this new technology is integrated into future devices, you will
have much more memory on your smartphones and tablets, approaching the
level of a laptop. With that kind of memory, you’ll be able to run
applications simultaneously, and because it is low voltage, power
consumption will fall and battery life will be longer,” said Mentovich,
according to a Tel Aviv statement.
This molecular memory transistor stores and disseminates information
at high speed – and it’s ready to be produced at existing high-tech
fabrication facilities. Major companies have already expressed interest
in the technology, says Mentovich, working under Shachar Richter’s
supervision at Tel Aviv.
Mentovich believes that this technology is sorely needed in today’s
mobile world. The year 2012 was the first in which big technology
companies sold more tablets and smartphones than laptops and notebooks
combined, he notes.
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