{"slug": "chinas-new-chip-stores-data-with-a-single-electron-breaking-ai-memory-bottleneck", "title": "China’s new chip stores data with a single electron, breaking AI memory bottleneck", "summary": "Researchers at Fudan University in Shanghai have developed a two-dimensional flash memory chip that stores data using a single electron at room temperature, a tenfold improvement over previous single-electron attempts. The device, named Guiyi and detailed in a paper published on July 16 in Science, could enable AI chat models to run on mobile phones with minimal power without losing memory during conversations.", "body_md": "Advertisement\n\n# China’s new chip stores data with a single electron, breaking AI memory bottleneck\n\nThe technology enables AI chat models to run on phones using minimal power, without ‘losing memory’ during conversations\n\n2-MIN READ2-MIN\n\nListen\n\nHow many electrons does it take to store a single bit of information?\n\nFor today’s most advanced dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips from Samsung and SK Hynix, the answer is roughly 200,000.\n\nThat is the price of reliability – a vast reservoir of charge needed to ensure a “1” or “0” does not fade into noise.\n\nBut a team at Fudan University in Shanghai has just collapsed that number to its theoretical floor: one.\n\nIn a paper published on July 16 in Science, microelectronics professor Zhou Peng and his colleagues detailed a working two-dimensional (2D) flash memory that traps and reads a solitary electron at room temperature – a feat long regarded as the holy grail for\n\n[semiconductors](https://www.scmp.com/topics/semiconductors?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23561166950&gbraid=0AAAAADltBQC8ecg0S7zfucskPK0lC2iQD&gclid=Cj0KCQjw94bTBhDQARIsAN3vv0y4uscE5rzQsgEI3iZXjPlaAglMTIX-BI_BazBfdWKJ4MLSpdnlBkEaAs-cEALw_wcB?module=inline&pgtype=article).The device, which they named Guiyi, lifts a faint, fleeting signal from just tens of millivolts to a robust 0.5 volts, a tenfold improvement over any previous single-electron attempt.\n\nFor the general public, the most direct impact of this technology is that it makes it possible to run large language models on mobile phones using minimal power, without the\n\n[artificial intelligence (AI)](https://www.scmp.com/topics/artificial-intelligence?module=inline&pgtype=article)“losing its memory” during conversations.Advertisement\n\nSelect Voice\n\nSelect Speed\n\n1.00x", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chinas-new-chip-stores-data-with-a-single-electron-breaking-ai-memory-bottleneck", "canonical_source": "https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3361580/chinas-new-chip-stores-data-single-electron-breaking-ai-memory-bottleneck?utm_source=rss_feed", "published_at": "2026-07-23 09:00:12+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-23 09:07:29.961844+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-chips", "ai-infrastructure", "ai-research", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Fudan University", "Zhou Peng", "Guiyi", "Samsung", "SK Hynix", "Science"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chinas-new-chip-stores-data-with-a-single-electron-breaking-ai-memory-bottleneck", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chinas-new-chip-stores-data-with-a-single-electron-breaking-ai-memory-bottleneck.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chinas-new-chip-stores-data-with-a-single-electron-breaking-ai-memory-bottleneck.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chinas-new-chip-stores-data-with-a-single-electron-breaking-ai-memory-bottleneck.jsonld"}}