NEC
Corp. (NEC) and Tohoku Univ. announced the development of the world’s first content
addressable memory (CAM) that both maintains the same high operation speed and
non-volatile operation as existing circuits when processing and storing data on
a circuit while power is off.
NEC’s
new CAM is a part of spintronics logic
integrated circuit technologies that utilize the negative properties of
electrons together with the spin magnetic moment. The new CAM utilizes the
vertical magnetization of vertical domain wall elements in reaction to magnetic
substances in order to enable data that is processing within the CAM to be stored on a circuit without using power. This
contrasts to conventional technologies that required data to be stored within
memory. As a result, data can be saved on circuits even when power is cut from
the CAM.
In
recent years, the use of ICT equipment has steadily increased due to the
widespread growth of cloud computing. Most existing equipment requires a short amount
of time to get started and internal circuits remain active when the equipment
is in standby mode. Therefore, the growing consumption of power by ICT
equipment in standby mode has become a serious concern.
Use
of the new CAM in combination with existing
nonvolatile memory is related to greater non-volatility of CPU for electronics
and other storage devices. Furthermore, use of this new CAM
enables the development of electronics that start instantly and consume zero
electricity while in standby mode.
In
addition to the vertical domain wall element can connect in series by
separating the route of current into reading and writing, the newly developed CAM circuit technologies can reduce the number of
transistors from eight to three in every two cells by sharing transistors. This
results in a 50% CAM area reduction.
NEC
developed nonvolatile particles aiming for both greater convenience and energy
conservation. Additionally, NEC and Tohoku
Univ. developed a
simulation technology for a circuit diagram including spintronics particles in
parallel with designing technologies for massively large integrated circuits
for developments involving the most advanced spintronics logic integrated
circuits.
NEC Corp., www.nec.com
