Poplar tree protein could boost computers' memory capacity

London, July 22 (ANI): Protein molecules obtained from the poplar tree in combination with memory units based on silica nanoparticles could greatly expand the memory capacity of future computers, according to scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

For showing this, the researchers have developed an alternative avenue to miniaturize memory elements while increasing the number and capacity of memory and functional logic elements in computers.

This approach, according to them, could replace standard fabrication techniques in use until now for increasing computer memory capacity, a process which involves ever-increasing manufacturing costs.

The Hebrew University project involves the genetic engineering of poplar protein to enable its hybridization with a silicon nanoparticle, reports Nature.

In this process, the nanoparticles are attached to the inner pore of a stable, ring-like protein (the poplar derivative), and these hybrids are arranged in a large network, or array, of very close, molecular memory elements.

Prof. Danny Porath and his graduate student Izhar Medalsy of the Institute of Chemistry at the Hebrew University have succeeded in successfully demonstrating how stable computing activity in a tiny memory element can be carried out in this way.

The practical result is a cost-effective system that greatly increases existing memory capacity while significantly reducing the space required to carry out this volume of activity.

The researchers are hopeful that this technology will prove to be a commercially successful alternative to current computer systems.

An article describing the work of the scientists has been published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. (ANI)