Ann: 4DS Technical Update, page-530

What are 4DS developing?

A non-volatile memory capable of speeds at least as fast as DRAM. It will be the only known non-volatile memory capable of matching, or bettering, DRAM for speed.

The key attribute difference between DRAM and 4DS will be the trade-off between endurance (DRAM advantage) and retention (4DS advantage). 4DS may, for the first time, provide device manufacturers with a choice for system memory. Do they use one, or combine both?

But speed will always be the number one sought metric. That is why SRAM exists, despite its limitations. That is why DRAM exists, despite its limitations. They both provide the best balance of performance (speed) and cost.

What is the opportunity?

If 4DS can produce a working array that demonstrates significantly greater speed than DRAM (up to 10x faster), then it is game on in a big way!! How big, will depend on the effective endurance of a 4DS memory chip. 4DS will start life augmenting DRAM, but as the effective endurance becomes market-tested, you may see it take over from DRAM in more and more applications.

You can also look at the target “niche” for 4DS: mobile and cloud:

• In 2021, there were 7.2 million data centres in the world (Statista)
• IT spending in data centres reached US$237 billion, with $74 billion of this in cloud, in 2021 (Statista)
• Data centres in the USA consumed 2% of the country’s total energy
• Each year, approximately 1.5 billion smartphones are sold throughout the world

Now, let’s consider the future memory requirements of the world. A world full of AI and autonomous machines, and imagine the astronomical amounts of data produced. Can the current SRAM/DRAM paradigm support this in a practical or economic way? What you really need is a denser and faster memory that uses significantly less energy.

There is a reason the4DS presentations close with the words “4DS is addressing the massive memory demands of tomorrow”.