A team of researchers at Fudan University in Shanghai has unveiled a groundbreaking flash memory device that could dramatically reshape the future of data storage and computing. Dubbed PoX—short for Phase-change Oxide—the new non-volatile memory achieves unprecedented speeds of 400 picoseconds per bit, making it the fastest semiconductor storage ever reported.
This translates to a programming rate of roughly 25 billion operations per second, smashing the previous world record of about two million per second. By comparison, even the fastest volatile memories—Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) and Dynamic RAM (DRAM)—take 1 to 10 nanoseconds per bit. PoX is more than 10 times faster and retains data even when power is off, unlike volatile types which lose all stored information once powered down.
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Why It Matters
The performance leap is especially significant for Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, where enormous amounts of data must be moved and updated in real time. Current AI accelerators face a fundamental limitation: most of their energy is consumed not in computation, but in data transfer. This is where PoX steps in—offering SRAM-level speed with flash-like permanence, and doing so at ultra-low power.
The innovation addresses a long-standing challenge: traditional flash memory, like that found in SSDs and USB drives, is non-volatile but sluggish, typically writing data in microseconds or milliseconds. Such delays are unacceptable for AI models, which increasingly operate at the edge—on devices like smartphones or autonomous drones—that demand instantaneous response and low energy consumption.
The Science Behind PoX
The PoX device’s performance comes from a radical re-engineering of memory structure. Instead of silicon, the Fudan researchers used two-dimensional Dirac graphene as the memory channel. Graphene’s ballistic charge transport properties allow electrons to move with minimal resistance and maximum speed.
But the real breakthrough came from tuning the Gaussian length of the channel, which led to a phenomenon called 2D super-injection. This effect creates an essentially unlimited surge of charge into the memory’s storage layer, eliminating the traditional bottlenecks faced by existing non-volatile technologies.
Lead researcher Professor Zhou Peng said that their team also used AI algorithms to optimize testing conditions during development. “We drove non-volatile memory to its theoretical limit,” Zhou told Xinhua, calling the result a step forward that could “pave the way for future high-speed flash memory.”
From Lab to Real World
The device, published in Nature, has already passed tape-out verification, and a small-scale, fully functional chip has been built. According to co-author Liu Chunsen, the team is now preparing for broader integration into existing consumer electronics such as smartphones and laptops. The long-term goal is to replace separate high-speed SRAM caches, reducing both chip area and energy usage.
Liu likens the shift to going from a flash drive that writes 1,000 times per second to one that can fire a billion times in a blink. This leap could make instant-on computing a standard feature and enable databases to keep their entire working memory persistently loaded.
Strategic and Industrial Implications
Beyond its technical merits, PoX also has strategic value. Flash memory is a cornerstone of global semiconductor infrastructure, and China’s success in creating a next-generation, high-speed, low-energy non-volatile memory puts it ahead in the race to dominate foundational chip technologies.
Reviewers of the paper described the invention as “completely original,” with the potential to disrupt the current memory hierarchy and open new avenues in AI, edge computing, and energy-sensitive applications. While endurance and large-scale fabrication details remain undisclosed, the use of graphene suggests compatibility with existing 2D material processing, which many global chip manufacturers are actively exploring.
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Fudan’s team is currently scaling up the PoX architecture for array-level demonstrations and is in collaboration with manufacturing partners to explore mass production. If successful, PoX could usher in a new era of ultra-fast, ultra-green memory, finally giving AI systems the storage speed they’ve long needed.