Article OTS-only memories
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Longread

The promise of OTS-only memories for next-gen compute system architectures

The discovery of a memory effect in ovonic threshold switching (OTS) devices paves the way to a new compute express link (CXL) memory

Summary

While investigating ovonic threshold switching (OTS) devices for selector applications, researchers at imec observed an interesting phenomenon: the device can operate as a memory itself.

This OTS-only memory involves a simple and cost-effective fabrication process, is scalable to larger densities, and shows promising performance characteristics for compute express link (CXL) memory-like applications – in between DRAM and NAND.

In this article, you learn how the OTS-only memory evolved out of OTS selector device technology, how it works, and which research directions are needed to meet the specs of a CXL memory for high-performance computing applications.