Blog: Hot New Memory; computer circuits based on quantum packets of heat instead of electricity

Hot New Memory
Science News (01/17/09) Vol. 175, No. 2, P. 10; Barry, Patrick

Researchers say that computer circuits based on quantum packets of heat instead of electricity could use the heat generated by processors to perform computations and store information. Recent research into the physics of controlling the flow of heat packets has led to designs for heat-based diodes, transistors, and logic gates capable of performing "and," "or," and "not" operations. Baowen Li, a physicist at the National University of Singapore who designed the thermal memory with his colleague Lei Wang of the Renmin University of China in Beijing, says heat-based circuits could lead to a new science and technology in controlling heat flow. "This, we believe, will revolutionize our daily use of heat and can help human beings save energy and live in a more environmental world," Li says. The phonons in thermal circuits are discrete units of vibration in the atoms of a solid. The stronger the vibrations, the hotter the solid. In materials that conduct heat, phonons travel through the substance like electrons travel through electrical conductors. Li and Wang did not build an actual heat-based memory device. Instead, the researchers used computer simulations and theoretical calculations to prove that such a device is physically possible. Concentrated heat tends to dissipate over time, indicating that heat-based memory would be impossible, but Li and Wang showed that, under certain conditions, information stored as phonons can be preserved.

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